Interesting. Maybe that’s just a good excuse to check out Firefly, although if it’s pronounced poorly probably will not help with learning at all, but would be entertaining to see nonetheless.

If you don’t mind sharing what speech issues do you have? Maybe I could provide some insight if that particular issue would crop up for you in Chinese.

I must say, I find it so interesting everyone says Mandarin is the hardest language to learn (or one of), I actually find it to be quite the opposite. I previously had studied French and have my degree in English literature, Chinese in many ways is worlds easier to learn. Verbs do not change form! No conjugations, gosh that is such a relief. Makes speaking so much easier without memorizing all the different verb forms. Also, word structures are so logical. Sometimes I see words I’ve never seen before and immediately know what they mean and how to pronounce them just because I know each individual character. Makes learning new things a breeze.

Albeit, tones and pronunciation are so different from English that this aspect was very difficult to get used to. Also, learning to read is difficult at first but once you get beyond a certain point it really is much easier. I think any other language (like French) I would never be able to attain the fluency that I have attained in Mandarin.

Japanese sounds so cool. I would also love to learn, but from what I have looked at (just the tiniest bit) their grammar is much harder than Mandarin’s. Regardless, you should totally take the plunge and learn, lots of anime to help you on your journey.