Learning Java will give you a leg up on Scala, as C would for C++. Even more so because Scala is still dirtectly implemented on Java at runtime, you'll be look

Learning Java will give you a leg up on Scala, as C would for C++. Even more so because Scala is still dirtectly implemented on Java at runtime, you'll be looking at Java stack traces and interacting with JVMs every day you work with Scala. If you don't know either you might as well start with Java-- walk before you run. Scala is very much an unfocused kitchen sink multiparadigm language (in the sense similar as C++ or perl) so there's not really a focused core to start on other than Java.