Although I think learning C opens up your accessible domains of programming widely. I mean, if you know C it doesnt even take a weekend to learn (the basics of) CUDA. Or you can just buy an simple embedded system and do data aquisition easily. Also there is a reason C is often under the hood of other programming languages like Python, Tcl, and (I read on the internet) Julia, Ruby and Perl.
I dont mean you can then write these languages, but you can look under the hood and read the source code (also if you want to write extensions it is useful).
> if you know C it doesnt even take a weekend to learn (the basics of) CUDA.
You mean, of CUDA kernel programming. The basics of CUDA as an ecosystem are not that much about a particular language and there are bindings for many languages.
I dont mean you can then write these languages, but you can look under the hood and read the source code (also if you want to write extensions it is useful).