I dropped Spanish which was the only language offered during my high school years. I regret it, and now I’m embarrassed to start learning as a uni-aged guy. I want to learn Mandarin because then I would know English and Mandarin which would cover like 50% of the populations speaking abilities.
Basically I just feel like a dumb American and being a Marxist I need to know another language.
Agreed, Duolingo might help with absolute basics, but it’s not great for Japanese. For Japanese kanji, I’d recommend an SRS like WaniKani (or an Anki deck if you don’t have the big monies).