When I had to pick a language to learn I chose Ruby and after spending 3 years learning it I'd say thats the language you want to go with. Its a strong web language with a huge community around it. The language is in constant development along with the libraries and frameworks supporting it. Getting started is real easy with the framework sinatra. In the beginning I found rails was standing in the way of just purely learning ruby and its sort of "magic" made no sense to me. Sinatra is simple. You start with one file with your request methods that are blocks of code starting with get, post and delete. You can then build that out into an mvc style if you so please by seperating things out.
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When I had to pick a language to learn I chose Ruby and after spending 3 years learning it I'd say thats the language you want to go with. Its a strong web language with a huge community around it. The language is in constant development along with the libraries and frameworks supporting it. Getting started is real easy with the framework sinatra. In the beginning I found rails was standing in the way of just purely learning ruby and its sort of "magic" made no sense to me. Sinatra is simple. You start with one file with your request methods that are blocks of code starting with get, post and delete. You can then build that out into an mvc style if you so please by seperating things out.
Ruby is the way forth
edit: Also, why's poignant guide to ruby will be the ideal way for you to learn ruby. http://www.scribd.com/doc/2236084/Whys-Poignant-Guide-to-Rub...