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Yes, I can imagine someone speaking 15th century Japanese because of this advice. You'd have to be extremely careful of the film because they often don't sound like real Japanese, only real Japanese slang.

I agree. If you are learning Japanese, don't watch Samurai movies as your learning tools. Your Japanese would be so out of whack with the majority of Japanese people. I can tell you Japanese people don't tell you that (ie. you learn Japanese from Samurai movies) if you look un-Japanese looking.
 
besides taking classes or being immersed in the culture for a period of time, i've honestly heard great things from numerous people about the rosetta stone software. might want to check that out
 
I'm in the same predicament now with trying to learn a new language (hopefully proficient enough for my planned travel to China this Christmas). What is the dominant Chinese language I should learn, Cantonese or Mandarin? If I learn Mandarin, is it easy to pick up Cantonese? Do they share similar grammatical structure?

Unless you're going to Guangdong or Hong Kong, there's very little point in learning Cantonese. Mandarin is easier, too, with only four tones against the nine or so of Cantonese.

All Chinese grammar is in theory the same, but Cantonese is a very slangy dialect.
 
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