How to learn a second language?

Japanese uses the absurdly complicated Chinese system of writing, which isn't phoenetic and has to be learned by heart, tho to be fair they also have hirogana and katakana which are phonetic, and often times you'll see katakana on top of the Chinese characters. Japanese pronunciation is very simple, but the grammatical structure is quite radical for us westerners. Don't learn Spanish it sounds retarded. Learn German. It has an absurd learning curve but if you can take it, like I did, you could be proud to be a part of a elite group of Americans who have mastered German. It also sounds badass and you'll find some familiarity with it as it's a germanic langauge as is English.