Currently my immediate language goals is to reach fluency in Japanese in about a year and a half(outside of the time I learned kanji). But ultimately I want to learn more than just Japanese, for I am far too greedy to only know one foreign language, I have a strong desire to learn Mandarin and Cantonese. I am not sure if I want to learn Cantonese first or if I want to learn Mandarin first but at this point I want to learn both and for varying reasons. Maybe I will try to learn both simultaneously but probably not because I think it’s best to just stick with one language at a time. So for the next 12 years I want to learn most importantly Japanese and then Chinese. So I have broken it down to something like this.
2015-2019 Focus on Japanese
2019-2023 Focus on Cantonese
2023-2027 Focus on Mandarin
Now even though I want to reach fluency in each of these languages in 1½-2 years I also want a couple years or so where I spend purely enjoying the language and also heading more to near mastery of each language. Keeping this goal in mind is helpful in that it keeps me sane in that I won’t try to learn Chinese and Japanese simultaneously, because that would be far too much to handle. And plus I still haven’t and can’t decide if I want to learn Cantonese first or Mandarin even though I put Cantonese first in my example, so setting this goal is good for keeping me from dabbing in Cantonese and Mandarin while I am still learning Japanese. When it comes to the beginning of 2019 I can decide then if I want to go with Cantonese or Mandarin first. So what it comes to basically, is I am deciding to make that decision later. The last thing I want to do is thwart my Japanese learning efforts by trying to decide against the two. But anyway this is what I have planned for the next 12 years(I know such a long time) I will see how things turn out. It’s cool though because I will be able to see this post and know just how I match up to the goals I set. 🙂
The Journey of Acquiring Japanese 
I’m finding a lot of overlap between Mandarin and Japanese both in terms of vocabulary and grammar, so you’ll probably find that once you are proficient in Japanese the Chinese variations will be easier. As for picking between Cantonese and Mandarin… one of the things I have found most difficult with my Mandarin is the lack of really interesting (for me) material in Mandarin, whereas Cantonese tends to be the main language for a lot of the more…exciting Chinese films. If you’re not really feeling a strong pull towards either dialect right now, it would probably be best to make the final decision based on the type of listening material you’re interested in when the time comes. Additionally, remember that Cantonese is entirely oral whereas Mandarin will be both oral and written.
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I agree, and yes I will test out which to go with by watching and listening to both. I plan on watching lots of TV in both and listening to music, talk radio, movies, etc. I will also seek to find out about both cultures in which the languages are spoken.
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