[OHayou]

1) be nice to Nyororin - she's a really sweet girl
2) English may be important for us English speakers but a lot of business goes on between nations / companies / people with absolutely no English involved.

I'm sure some Chinese people would say that Mandarin is the most important language to know.

3) I think I am pretty fluent in English since I've been speaking it nearly 33 years and I study Japanese for an ungodly amount of time compared to how much I actually know. Maybe I'm just a slow learner (lol) but I am not sure knowing English makes it easier to learn Japanese.

I can't think of a language that would make it "easier" to then learn Japanese (maybe spanish for the sounds? or mandarin because at least you're learning Kanji)