choosing between two different languages

I'm having trouble choosing a language to learn.  I've decided on either Russian or Swedish.  Here's why...

Russian: my friend is learning Russian (albeit at a slow pace).  It'd be kind of neat if we could talk to each other in a language other than our native English.

Swedish: it sounds really pretty when spoken, and if I were to learn it, it would be the first foreign language I will have become fluent in.


Those are my reasons, now here are my previous language-learning experiences.  I know a little bit of French from a 1-year (so far) French class I've had.  I plan on continuing the class next year.
I also have a rudimentary knowledge of Japanese.  I can understand the pronunciation and I know some basic phrases.  I can read hiragana and a few katakana, and I know one or two kanji.


Sorry for the long post, but I am trying to decide carefully so I won't regret my decision (or get bored and give up) later.

OP, I higly doubt you'll learn either of them having just those reasons. You'll most likely give up with such attitude.
However, just in case you'll get serious in the future...
For English natives Russian is about twice more difficult to learn than Swedish. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Language_Learning_Difficulty_for_English_Speakers
So if you're in it for fun, go with Swedish. It's not that useful (10M speakers), but if you plan to use it, it may be important to you.
If you're after usefulness and don't fear playing on hard mode, go with Russian (250M speakers). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_language
You'll get Belarussian and Ukrainian (to some degree) as a bonus.
I personally prefer impossible difficulty, so I go with Japanese. Russian native, BTW :P