Let's start by giving a good number of reasons why learning Japanese might be of interest to you.

** You may be about to travel to a Japanese speaking country

** You have an opportunity to occupationally train some colleagues who only speak Japanese

** You want basic Japanese for business reasons and want to become more valuable at your job by being bilingual

** You are a fan of Japanese animation films, video games, manga comics and want to want to enjoy them more fully without relying on subtitles

** You would like to read books, magazines, and web sites written in Japanese

** Enable you write to and email Japanese speaking people

** Feel more confident and comfortable around Japanese speaking people

** Allow you to get hired by a multi-national business firm and possibly even work and live in Japan

** Japanese fluency definitely stands out on a college/university application, resume or curriculum vitae

** Just enjoy the possibility of making tons of new Japanese friends

Besides that, it would be pretty impressive to be able to tell your family, friends, and members of the opposite sex that you "speak Japanese".

Your goal should be to learn to read, speak, and understand modern Japanese. Obviously this can't be done from just a book. One of the better proven ways of doing this with less effort is utilizing "picture learning". This method appears to better lock the language into your brain. Some computerized courses feature this approach to build vocabulary in terms of understanding, speaking, reading, and writing Japanese. This system makes the whole process more fun and can have the student mastering hundreds of words in a matter of days. Make sure that whatever course you take covers both the Hiragana and Katakana Japanese alphabets. The better courses utilized a "game" type approach to reduce boredom, stimulate interest and improve speed of results.

Once you gain the competence in Japanese, you will open up many personal and business related opportunities. For example, the U.S.A. does more business with Japan than any other country. You will be a valuable employee if you speak the language of the customer. Japanese is among the top 10 languages on Earth and spoken by over 130 million people. "Speaks Japanese" looks great on a resume or curriculum vitae, no matter what your line of work.

In Japan especially, language has been grooved by culture. So as you study Japanese you also discover and learn more about their wonderful culture. Stepping outside your own culture and language will give you a fresh, new perspective. In addition, Japan has lots of great music that can be appreciated so much more because you can now understand it.