uff, it's controversial territory... scala is certainly closer to f# than clojure. that could be good - easier to learn - or bad - you learn less (i would strongly encourage learning one lisp, and working through "on lisp" to grok macros, if you haven't done so yet). my problem with scala is that i found it too complicated. i was really frustrated and disappointed with it, and that was exacerbated by my hope that it was the future (i thought it would be haskell for java programmers - and it is, in a way, but it achieves it through brute force rather than elegance, imho). but that was just me, and some time ago (when the language was changing more rapidly) - it may be better now, or for others...