I believe the problem is in your "date_of_birth" column. you are passing a string and not a date. since dates are numbers, it tries to cast them, but it is not in a format it expect, you changed the order of months and days.

Oracle.DataAccess.Client.BulkCopy - trying to cast varchar2 as number when it shouldn't
I'm a self-taught intermediate Python programmer; I frequently come across popular books on software development and programming written in other languages (often Java). 

Typical examples:


Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
Design Patterns, Gang of Four
Test Driven Development: By Example
The Art of Unit Testing: With Examples in .NET


Generally speaking, how useful is it to read a book written for another language? Specifically, what about Python? Should one stick to language specific books? 

For example, a lot of people praise Design Patterns by the GOF, I've never read it because the model applies to other languages (after all Python is about anti-patterns, right?) yet I feel the urge to because of it's place in the CS literature cannon. 

Likewise, would The Art of Unit Testing: With Examples in .NET help a Python programmer learn unit testing even though the examples are in .Net? 
