Erik wrote:
"the other 2 will help you understand the intricacies of the '51"

VB and other so-called "High-Level" languages aim to hide the intricacies of the underlying hardware from the programmer; with Assembler, it is essential that you understand those intricacies in detail!

As has already been noted, BASIC and 'C' languages are available for the 8051 and, according to the newsflash at the top of this list, Ceibo now have C++.
However, to make effective use of the 8051 with any language still requires a good understanding of the hardware architecture.