Good day Picers

I have talked to someone who are an electronic expert.
He is taking over our electronic development and I'm doing the PIC programming.

I have told him that I'm using PICBASIC.

He then laughed at me, and later told me that if I want to get serious about PIC Programming, I must start learning the C Programming language.
He said that PICBASIC just is not what the professionals use and that people would laugh at me if I would say I'm using PICBASIC?

I cannot see why I must learn C.
Is C in any way better than picbasic?
If not, what can I told him to convince him that PICBASIC is as good as C!!