I also find Squeak by Example and Pharo by Example very good introductory guides. Smalltalk By Example is even better if you want to know more about the language.�

Smalltalk is similar to Lisp in the sense that it follows its own path and it takes some time to escape the C syntax. But overall Smalltalk and Lisp are excellent choices for beginner coders.�

The article you linked contains those peculiarities but those things will become apparent to anyone following Pharo by Example. �

And I dont think you will find many people arguing that C++ , Java are more readable than Smalltalk and Lisp. Sure to people that are not that experienced could be. But even in that case, I dont quite believe it.

Overall however learning languages is not a big deal, its learning libraries that can become a real torture. For example I hated C++ because of MFC and I strongly disliked Java because of Swing. Now that I am learning Javascript , I dislike it because of DOM , Jquery etc . Also Its easy to find good documentation for languages much more difficult for libraries.�

So I am not buying that Smalltalk is anything else than very easy to learn. Other than that like any language out there it takes some time to get used to some things.�