I suppose that’s also fair. I would say that Java at least makes you aware that there is magic afoot. You have to explicitly write that you’d like to use a HashMap, at which point someone writing or reading the code might wonder “what’s that?” Instead, python hides behind the abstraction of a “dictionary” when it should be in my opinion broadcasted from the high heavens that this is a hash map in disguise.

As far as the remainder of your comment, I agree wholeheartedly. Learn computer science. It makes you a better programmer.