This is from 2009. Scala has only improved since then, although it's still not a "mainstream" programming language by any stretch. You can talk to a crowded room of programmers who either haven't heard of Scala, or have heard of it only in passing and don't really know what it's about. That's fine.

Programmers who are interested in learning and growing will always be attracted to new languages and technologies. What's interesting about Scala is that it's not solely academic. You can learn and do useful things with it at the same time. Later, when you've learned more, you can go back and improve your old code for added beauty and performance. That's a fun process, I think.