Well, the first kanji you'll learn will probably be "ichi", "ni" and "san"
- or "yama" Don't read romanji! Or else you won't be able to read hiragana or katakana skillfully, and will be reading like "uh.... to.... temo... ta... kai... desu..."
They DID offer japanese on my highschool, mostly because my highschool was founded by priests to bring japanese descendents into catholicism, until the 50s it accepted only japanese kids, and until 1960, only boys. It was VERY optional, few people knew it even existed, and I didn't take back then, I wish I did.