Russian is underrated

I think, of all the languages I've looked into thus far, Russian is by far the most understudied/overrated. It has clear (albeit somewhat tricky) grammar, an essentially phonetic and practical alphabet (unlike  English/French in particular, but many asian languages also) and excellent, colourful and clear expression with a decent-but-not-too-large vocabulary. It seems everyone flocks to Japanese these days just to be cool and understand anime/manga.
Nearly the only drawback is that words are typically 2-3 syllables longer and the syllables themselves can be frustrating (eg rolled r's, distinction between hard and soft consonants).

But overall (and having studied French, Spanish, German, some Hindi and Chinese) genuinely adore Russian and encourage others to do the same. It is a functional, sensible and (mostly!) beautiful language that deserves more attention, IMHO
Post your thoughts here.

>>10
It is a problem when spellings are no longer phonetic and the grammar has more exceptions than rules.


>>12
Spanish is moderate in difficulty.
English is tremedously hard for many second-language students - the only thing making it easy is that most of the internet is in it, with pop culture, etc.
German is a great choice. Go for it. Like German, Russian has 3, quite predictable genders (in German they are somewhat harder, but quite memorable once you know them). Try a bit of each and see which suits you best.