If I were you, I would take on PERL before you take on RUBY on RAILS. For one thing, PERL can be run easily on a Windows or LINUX OS (sorry, Hackintoshers, unless you wanna get REAL and install LINUX), and PERL is a scripting language, so programming it is easier to learn than something that is object-oriented, like RUBY. Anyway, you asked, so as a HaXx0r, that's my 2-cents worth!
I had a very good experience in Asia, and I have a half-Japanese daughter. Travel should be a part of an education today (the geography in schools these days is horrid!), and a foreign language is always a plus.