I'm sure you guys have heard this sort of question alot, but i'd be grateful if someone could take the time to read and reply to this!

I have a couple of friends living in Japan that have said that I should try learning Japanese sometime, Weighing up the options I'm not sure whether I should attempt it or not, they've agreed to help with spoken and written japanese where (and when) applicable, through Instant messaging, online phone calls and providing some reading material at a later date if i'm serious about it.

My question is, for someone who has no understanding of japanese at all, what would be the major problems I would encounter if I were to begin learning it, and basically, what would I be letting myself in for? I have had experience learning another language before, though it is a western one (Dutch), so naturally I have little understanding of how to approach learning an asiatic language (other than starting with a few basic language books).

I heard that learning the Kanji is very difficult but Hiragana and Katakana could be learnt within a few months, and that spoken Japanese is relatively easy due to the fewer consonants than english, obviously i'm not sure if any of this information is accurate or not but a little promting towards the right direction would be much appreciated!

Hi

How do you intend to use it if you learn it?

If you wont need to read or write, you could focus on just learning to speak.

As you probably know, you need to learn a few thousands characters to read and write Japanese well.

Hmm.. see this is the issue I face, I won't really have much need to speak it and I come across written Japanese more.
It would almost be solely used for recreation and not business, though it may become handy in the future with my choice of career path(Media and advertising)

Though I'm a little wary about diving in head first without "testing the waters" so to speak.

QUOTE:
]My question is, for someone who has no understanding of japanese at all, what would be the major problems I would encounter if I were to begin learning it, and basically, what would I be letting myself in for? I have had experience learning another language before, though it is a western one (Dutch), so naturally I have little understanding of how to approach learning an asiatic language (other than starting with a few basic language books).

I think the biggest problem (challenge) is kanji. One character can have many different readings, and knowing which reading is used when can be a headache. Hiragana and katakana are much, much easier in comparison.

QUOTE:
I heard that learning the Kanji is very difficult but Hiragana and Katakana could be learnt within a few months, and that spoken Japanese is relatively easy due to the fewer consonants than english, obviously i'm not sure if any of this information is accurate or not but a little promting towards the right direction would be much appreciated!

Speaking Japanese is pretty easy. I've read that learning to speak it comfortably can be done in about a year.

Have you looked at any books on learning Japanese? There are tons out there.