> As an estimated guess, for those of you that know atleast how to 
> speak Japanese, how long it takes to learn it? And what are some 
> good places online to learn?

I'd figure at least several years, more likely more than less, for
a native english speaker.

But you can get some feel for, and appreciation of the language 
without having the mastery to be a fluent speaker.

The fastest progress is likely to be in a classroom or in a "total
immersion" setting that forces you to learn.

I pick at it in my spare time, and by watching _lots_ of subtitled
anime, listening to the audio of anime repeatedly, and learning
anime theme songs. This is less effective, but can still be fun.

You will learn a different sort of Japanese from anime than you would
be advised to speak as a tourist in Japan. So it's important to
learn about formal vs. informal speech.

I started some time ago to make a web page of books I'd used to study
Japanese. It's still only partly completed, but you can see it at:

http://www.mcs.net/~lunde/web/anime/japanese/self-study-japanese.html

--
    Albert Lunde          Albert-Lunde@northwestern.edu (new address)
                          Albert-Lunde@nwu.edu (old address)