Gender equality isn't dead in Japan either, far from it. Women have their jobs that they can apply for and so often these days if a woman is in the office she's still expected to serve her supervisor tea. It's ridiculous, but that's how it was. It's not as bad in most sectors, but the higher end office type jobs are still very traditional. It's why there have been voices most recently trying to convert Japan to a more socialistic country, citing that it is one way to help promote gender equality in all areas if everyone is treated the same. It might work, because it's Japan and we have our traditional culture still, but I'm not so certain.
French used to be more widely spoken than English and is still the international language in some places (such as Haiti, for example). Italian would be interesting to learn. If you'd ever like to learn Japanese, I'd be glad to teach it. The writing is the most difficult part of Japanese, but you can learn to speak without learning to read or to write the language. The joys of Romaji, I suppose!
Squee away if you'd like. You should always be yourself and never let anyone stop you from doing that. Momo knew how I thought about that, really.