I first learned design patterns in the context of C++. After learning python I used to think that needing design patterns was a sign that your language wasn't powerful enough. However, now that I've taken the time to learn Smalltalk I feel that design patterns indicates that your language had the ability to model any kind of architecture you can imagine, and if needed you can reshape the language to make that easier (vs python where you would need to implement it in the underlying cPython layer).