Like most things in programming, 'it depends'! What's your background? If it's in a more interpreted language like Ruby or Python, learning Elixir instead might be a good idea. If you want something that's going to be more approachable, it also might be a better idea. Are you going to do web development, and want to use a more conventions-over-configuration type of framework? Do Elixir with the Phoenix framework.

If you already enjoy Erlang though? Don't get discouraged just because something is built on top of it- keep going! Elixir will be there regardless, and might even be easier to learn when you understand what it's built on.