After seeing people in this thread, I have a question, outside of the US, is it common for people to know several languages well? Here in the US, you may run into immigrants who know their native language (usually an East Aisan language or Spanish) and English, but I've never met anybody who knows 3+ languages good. Where I live, some people born here can't even speak English right. 
Another question, how long would it take for someone with no prior knowledge to learn to read/speak Japanese enough to understand most things in Japan?
Question #3: If you come from an English/Spanish background, which languages could you learn the quickest? and are most useful?
Anyway, I speak English fluently, and know some Spanish (still leaarning it) and after Spanish I will try to learn Portuguese, and either French or Japanese.
