my problem is, i like so many things about SO many different languages - i have a hard time deciding which ones to study. how have you all personally decided which languages to undertake for your personal studies? i know in many cases you don't have a choice, if for example one in particular is required for a particular major. but being an aspiring school/counseling psychologist: well, i'm not mandated to know any specific one. i just have passion/interest for them.
i just have a hard time knowing which ones to invest my time in! for example, i'm drawn to mandarin and vietnamese because of the lovely tones, but then i love the lilting rhythms of italian and portuguese..and then i love japanese because of their many fascinating philosophical concepts and emotions embedded in the language itself, ah! it's sooo hard. i'm sure you all have felt similarly before.
so what i'd like to know is,
1. how do you decide?!
2. is it important to limit this decision to a certain number? is it possible to be fluent in only a certain number of languages - i don't want to know just introductory phrases in 15 languages, i'd rather know 7 languages thoroughly. but maybe even this is too much?
3. how to ensure fluency and knowledge of all the different languages is kept up over the course of your life?