I was wondering is learning Python and Django a hard/time consuming process for someone who's already rather familiar with OO programming (C++/Java) and some web dev (Java EE)?
I'm starting to look for a technology to implement a part of my master's thesis and since it will be a web app I'm considering Java EE (since I'm already familiar with it), Python/Django (since my professor suggested it and I'd really like to learn Python), Ruby on Rails (also my profs suggestion but somehow I don't feel like learning it) and PHP (the last suggestion but I despise PHP). Oh he also said he heard something about Scala, but from what I know Scala/Lift isn't all that mainstream yet and it might be problematic to work with it?
My greatest concern is time since for the next 4-5months I'll be attending my normal courses, go to work and work on my thesis (then I'll have 4-5months for only work+my thesis) and I'm not sure will I find the time to learn a new language.
The whole thing will be a web app for the teachers/students to both check and make their schedules at the uni (there will be some constraint programming etc etc and we want to implement an algorithm which would, based on data from previous years and some user input, create a schedule for the upcoming year).
Personally I love java but my teacher said it's a performance hog and I'd like to know is python's performance better/worse?
If for your thesis and you have decided up front that you like it and want to use it, you have in my opinion the best situation conceivable.
Go for it.  Learn all you can.  Do the best you can.
This will happen again and again in your professional life, and you might as well have tried it in a situation where you have an experienced mentor handy (but do as the mentor says!)
How hard is it to learn Python/Django for a Java EE dev?