Want To Learn A New Language...what should I go with?

[ultima]

darthdevidem01 said:

ultima said:
Hmm... I honestly would love to learn Japanese myself. Japanese culture is just so foreign and beautiful to me... But, like I said, their written language is a huge barrier. If a curriculum can be concocted that somehow skips the Kanji altogether or simplifies it greatly, then I'd get on it right away.

Yeah that's basically what I've heard. It's VERY VERY hard to learn the written language. 

Mandarin on the other hand is supposedly much more easier to get into. 

I'm not sure if that's true; according to wikipedia:

Chinese characters number in the tens of thousands, though most of these are minor graphic variants only encountered in historical texts. Studies carried out in China have shown that functional literacy requires a knowledge of between three and four thousand characters.

That doesn't mention Mandarin specifically, but I'm sure it applies to Mandarin. Isn't that insane? LOL