eXalpha shoutbox on the board? I say no. It's been a convenient means for us to communicate, but I don't think it would be a good idea to put it on the board. Remember that anyone can use any name unless it's registered. It's prone to identity abuse. If we want to have a shoutbox on the board, I think it'll be better to use a shoutbox mod for vBulletin like CC Chatbox or maybe something lighter (not sure what's compatible with vB 4).
As about Japanese learning section, I think it's a good idea if it gets enough attention. On HF, it does, and members quite actively converse in their Japanese conversation thread (well, but then again, it's hard to compare many boards with them in terms of activity and the likes). On SH, we started a learning section per my suggestion, but it got deserted eventually. However, when we started, a moderator posted basic lessons like hiragana & katakana table, basic words & expressions, etc; and the threads got very high attention like 100 or so thanks (just fyi, newbs in SH are usually ingrates who don't know how to thank and rep, so one post having that amount of thanks is aijkuflkashdl rare).
So to cap it up, we can't deny that Japanese is a language with very high demand, especially among people interested in Japanese stuff like ourselves. If you promise to be active and of course moderate the section, Gd (no fret, I will help and guide in moderating), then sure, we can realise such a section.
