<p>I thought I'd offer up my opinion on this subject based on my experience in this area. Please excuse the length of this post; I think I got a little carried away :D</p>
<p>I'm a Japanese major with a Mathematics minor at a top LAC who speaks fluent Japanese (i.e. reads newspapers/novels with only occasional dictionary usage). From my experience, taking college courses in an Eastern language will NOT make you fluent after four years. The first year or two will give you a good base to work off of, but Japanese is a language which you must put a considerable amount of at-home effort into in order to see real results (think at least 1-2 hours a day in addition to classwork).</p>
<p>As to which language is more "useful", it greatly depends on how you wish to use them and what kind of work you wish to do. Either language will be a great asset if you plan to market yourself in Asia. However, kenf1234 is correct in say that merely knowing a language will not get you a job. Language skills (expect in interpreting, translating, or language teaching) are really a supplement to some other skill set such as engineering, mathematics, science, etc. in the private sector. If you plan to get into academics, however, either language will serve you well, though you would be best to master both eventually.</p>
<p>kenf1234's statement that "knowing Japanese will actually DECREASE your income, since you'll be more likely to work for Japanese companies, which pay less" is not entirely fair, given that if you take the opposite stance (i.e. were to be hired at a Chinese company) you would make considerably less money than either a Japanese or American company would pay. The moral of this story is to get hired by an American or European company working in Asia, rather than a local outfit!</p>
<p>I would argue that there are far more Chinese who speak fluent English than there are Japanese. One can see this by looking at the sheer number of Chinese nationals who receive an education in the US. The Japanese, on the other hand, are generally educated entirely in Japan, unless they come to the states for an MBA or are transferred here for work. There are also far more Chinese immigrants living in the states than there are Japanese immigrants (though many speak Cantonese rather than Mandarin). </p>
<p>Finally, I would take great issue with the assertion that, "Young Japanese actually speak English quite well". Young Japanese may be able to read/write English somewhat decently, but speaking is an entirely different story. The Japanese learn English because it comes up as a subject on most college entrance examinations. These exams are entirely written, so their spoken ability is not tested, and thus not focused on by schools teaching English in Japan. And if you can speak Japanese, you will see a noticeable sigh of relief on the faces of store clerks and helpful citizens throughout Japan when you engage them in conversation :) </p>
<p>I would disagree that Japanese is easier to learn than Chinese (I take it you mean Mandarin, as there is no such language as "Chinese"). Both languages have their difficulties, but given my experience in both and what I have been told by professors who speak both, I would conclude that Mandarin is easier, though still quite difficult. </p>
<p>Japanese has simple pronunciation for a native English speaker, though the r/l sound takes some getting used to. This is not to say that Japanese pronunciation is the same as English, and one major weakness I see in beginning Japanese students is the tendency to graft American sounds and intonation onto Japanese. Pay close attention to intonation and inflection when you hear or speak Japanese, as these are the things that will make you sound truly fluent.</p>
<p>Chinese has more difficult pronunciation than Japanese, but it still is nowhere near as difficult as French or Russian. Many people have a great fear/concern about tones, but I have found them to not be terribly difficult. In fact, while Japanese is not a tonal language, you will find that differences in inflection can change the meaning of words (i.e. the word "ame", meaning either "rain" or "candy" depending on the intonation). In this case, however, Chinese is indeed more difficult.</p>
<p>When it comes to the writing systems, I personally think Chinese is MUCH simpler than Japanese. True, the total number of characters you must learn to be fluent in Chinese is greater, but most all these characters have only one pronunciation, where as in Japanese most characters have AT LEAST two. Some characters such as 生 have a ridiculous number of readings. (In case you're curious, this character can be read as "nama", "ubu", "sei", "shou", "na", "i" ,etc. And that doesn't include the ways it can be read in names.)</p>
<p>The final point of comparison I'll make between the difficultly of Chinese and Japanese is vocabulary. I think Chinese nudges ahead in this area, given that Chinese words sounds nothing like their English counterparts, and even transliterated words sound somewhat "off". Japanese has katakana, either a curse or blessing, depending on your point of view. This means that Japanese has an increasingly large number of foreign-origin words that sound close to their English (or German, or Portuguese) counterpart.</p>