@Carolgreen986,

I just wanted to explain why I gravitated to Chinese. One factor was the people are, by and large extremely warm and caring people.

The other was the sheer awesomeness of Chinese. Chinese is, while not romantic, it is awesome! The history of it, the gravity of it, the magesty of it, the mystery of it, the intricacy of it, the poetry of it, the depth and bredth of it is, as far as I'm concerned, unparalleled by any other living language.

Be that as it may, I still recommend Japanese for those looking to dip their toe in the Asian language water.