I started on the other end (my first language was C89) and I am with you on types. Just being able to read a plaintext file and know what type every variable and parameter is just makes reading the code easier to me. My primary language is python at the moment, and I don't think I could continue without the type annotations that you can add in coupled with mypy (a static type checker that you can run on the cli as part of a build).

Every time I see a regular Map with nested maps, I get a little annoyed.