I know that a couple of my friends are native speakers, and that many more find it beautiful, and I would like to assure them that my dislike is completely irrational and reflects nothing upon what I think of people who speak, or even like French.

No offense taken. :-) I myself tend to wince when I hear certain French accents...

Affinity with a language is a very personal thing. People are always surprised when I tell them I love German. I don't know, it has a reputation for being such a harsh language (largely because of WWII movies), but to me, it just rolls off the tongue.

I had a year of Japanese classes and am trying to continue on my own, but I definetely agree that, unless one really, really wants to learn the language, the amount of effort is just not worth it.