I have been learning German (on and off) for about a year but I like Japan, Japanese language culture etc and am considering switching to Japanese, this is nothing academical it is just self taught and just for fun but as everyone knows Japanese is so hard to learn specially if you are trying to teach yourself and I worry how successful I would be at this and how fast I could learn it.. I'm not picking German up as fast as I thought so it is seriously doubtful that I could learn two special one being as hard as Japanese and I would rather be good at one rather than be average at two languages

this is my little problem any thoughts would be welcome however I am aware of your bias this being the Japan channel forum =)

I cant imagine trying to learn two at once!!
If it were me I would choose which one and focus on it.
As for which one... I would pick the one that I was motivated to learn the most!!
Learning a language takes dedication and the one that interests you the most is more likely to work out for you

Yeah that the thing I can't decide which one

in this times, thanks to internet its actually not that hard to learn languages
one good way would be like, try to chat with germans daily 10-20min your german will increas rapidly this way in just a few weeks, once u got used to that language try out voicechat (skype, vent, teamspeak) since its completly different to understand a language when u read or hear it

about german its pretty easy language actually (well more difficult then english, but compared to other like russian it is easy)
the pronunciation of german words is always clear (u speak what is wroten) not like in english where u can read "a" as "e" , "a" or "o"

the difficult part is the grammar, the hardest in german grammar is the knowledge of gender of the words, i guess you know what i mean "der die das"


another good way to learn language is beeing an exchange student, a few years back my sister was exchange student with an french school for 3weeks (the whole class did that, pretty common in germany to have such exchange projects once or twice in middle school)
while the class of my sister moved to france, the class from france moved to germany, it was like a replacement for 3weeks, so my sister was replaced by some french girl, who stayed at my house for 3weeks. Well nobody in my family actually spoke any french, so i was the only one who could talk to her, my french increast so much after this 3 weeks, cause after first 2-3days speaking only basics with her (in example parents are asking me to ask her if she is hungry or similar stuff) i got along with her pretty well and we spend some time together
in this school year my french mark went form 4 to 2+ (german middelschool marks are 1 2 3 4 5 6[worst])
that is an example how i learned french, since i was very lazy in school and never study there^^ (though i droped french later in highschool)

coming back to ur original questin, u should study both languages, though you schould first get the basics of one language before you start with another, so you dont mix up stuff

Is there any way you could perhaps take a course in which ever language you decide to go with? With a decent teacher, you will always learn a language more quickly and comprehensively than if it's self-taught. Assuming that the teacher is from the country that the language is spoken in, naturally. That sounds like a given, but my sister spent the last few months being taught Spanish by a Romanian at school for some reason.

Anyway, I tried to teach myself Japanese once, but I found it extremely difficult. I'm now doing Japanese at university (not as my main degree. For credit.) and it's going much better. I suppose if you wanted to get a head start with Japanese before taking a course or whatever, you might try learning Hiragana and Katakana and a few Kanji, but I wouldn't recommend going any further than that.


-EDIT-

Okay, just realised that your main query was as to whether you should go for Japanese or German. That's not the kind of decision anyone else should make for you, really. The best you can do is research the culture and language of both and then make an informed decision. Personally, I'd go for Japanese first, but then, I'm a Japanophile. In which would you rather life? Would you rather date a Japanese person or a German person? It's all about personal taste. And I understand that those are rather specific and not necessarily applicable questions, but they are the kind of questions that may help you to reach a decision.

That said, I'm hardly an expert on linguistics. That's just my opinion. Good luck!

Well, if you research the culture, you will see that the germans made a lot of mistakes in history, where Japan was, well, relative, a lot more quiet.

It is your own decision, but I can tell you, what I would choose.

Assuming I am english(I am german... lol), I'd see it this way:
Japanese is not a western country and has a LOT of differences in culture.

While germany, england, america, finland, etc. are pretty same, japan is different.

I live in germany and I have to say: I don't like it.

Apparently, I don't like many countries... But Japan is one I like

For the language...
You really say everything like you write it. The only thing that differs sometimes is the "ch". Sometimes it's more like "sch"(sh), sometimes more like "chr"...

Apart from that, the genders were mentioned. Oh well... poor english people don't have genders for things

But many languages have... although I think it's pretty... err... unneccesary.

In germany they say, that german is hard to learn for foreigns... But I don't know how true that is.

For japanese, I have to say: my japanese is not the best, but I am learning it right now...

The writing is a little bit hard to learn, but that counts only for the kanji. You can learn hiragana and katakana on a weekend, but I suggest you to take week

The grammar of japanese is pretty clear and therefore easy to learn. Japanese hasn't got much irregular verbs, too

Keep in mind, this is only my very own opinion and the decision is still yours!