[shows them Node]
Oh, It's a calculator. Wow. I mean, wow. That's emm, really impressive.
[No, it's a runtime environment for JavaScript]
It's a what? So how does that help me move things around on the screen?
[It doesn't]
So explain what the point of Node is?
[etc]
A beginner at basic level, that's "what's a variable", "what's a function", "I don't see what the point of a function is". And something like Node -- it's just not a great environment to explain that: it doesn't do much that's interesting, like move stuff around on a screen. You can type stuff into the REPL, and it will spit things back, but that's just going to look like a calculator. Something like Processing, or a simple game engine aimed at beginners, or even making things happen on a web page using JS: that's good, it holds interest.
For every other saner environment (read: browser consoles), global await is a thing already, and you get immediate feedback, and have a canvas (with sync APIs!).
That being said, I do think that the best programming language to start learning is the one your parents/friends speak.