Have you actually met anyone who's asserted that Python "kind of looks like Java", let alone that its resemblance to Java makes it easier for them to understand? I've written both Java and Python, and out of all the things I could imagine saying about Python, "Boy, this is sure kind of like Java" would be very, very far down on the list.
> Have you actually met anyone who's asserted that Python "kind of looks like Java"
That's unfair.
> let alone that its resemblance to Java makes it easier for them to understand?
Yes, but maybe not in the way you're expecting.
Guido himself remarked on many of their similarities back in 1997[1]; They definitely have a very similar execution model, the syntax can be directly translated almost like a cheat-sheet[2], and yeah, I think people can easily convince themselves into thinking the knowledge -- even superficial knowledge like the aesthetics of one language can help them "comprehend" the other. If you haven't observed this, I think you either haven't been programming that long or you're just trying to look at what I'm saying too narrowly in an effort to troll for a fight. And it's not just Python: Norvig even (reportedly) almost convinced himself (in this way) that Python is the same as Lisp[3], and that's just bananas!
Now, if you still don't know what I'm talking about, this next thing isn't going to make any sense at all either, but I'm hopeful you can try to understand after some reflection, and if not you, someone else who reads this with an open mind: If you are using one language to understand another, you're not actually understanding that language.
That has a very significant implication that turns out to make Array programming really hard for experienced programmers: Because you already know Java when you learn Python (for example) you think you're learning Python faster than you actually are. It still takes a few years to get really good at Python, but in the meantime, you can lean so heavily on your Java-think you don't even realise it. You've benchmarked the rate at which you "learn", and you just can't get APL, so you might just say something impossibly stupid like "APL is hard to understand" when Iverson won a freakin' Turing award for how understandable it was[4]!
Maybe that helps you understand what I mean, but if not, maybe this[5] will.
[1]: https://www.python.org/doc/essays/comparisons/
[2]: http://math-cs.gordon.edu/courses/cps122/handouts-2014/From%...
[3]: http://smuglispweeny.blogspot.com/2008/02/ooh-ooh-my-turn-wh....
But even they were disappointed at how un-Java Python was. I'm sure Guido is relieved.