You should have included a category "Have a Japanese girlfriend or boyfriend".

I first learned the language out of curiousity in high school. I love languages in general. Later, I had Japanese girlfriends, and I wanted to be able to speak with them in their native tongue. I'm glad I had a headstart.

Japanese is easy if:

1) you avoid the written language. I love writing kana and kanji, but it makes reading and writing the language far more difficult. For instance, I can read Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, French, and Korean (slowly) text and pronounce them reasonably well, even if I don't understand what I'm saying. I can even figure out the meaning of Italian, Portuguese, and German through my knowledge of English and Spanish. With Japanese kanji, it's almost the opposite. I know what many characters mean (sometimes vaguely), but don't know how most of them are pronounced.

2) You stay in the formal social language level. There are about four formality levels of spoken Japanese, from how you would address the emperor to how you speak to your child. The levels of Japanese are, in some cases, vastly different, especially the verbs and forms of address. The differences are not only based on your relative position to who you are addressing, but also how well you know them. I learned a formal level of Japanese in my classes. When I made my first trip to Japan, I couldn't understand what my girlfriend's friends, using casual "in group" language, were saying

Other than that, it's a logical and clear language. I agree that it is fun to learn. I love to speak it, too, especially when I can use all those noises people make when comprehending something, seeing something special, being surprised by what you tell them, etc. (Aaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh ookii des' neeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Soooo kaaaaaa . . .)

So da ne