[seanmcdirmid]

Spoken Chinese is quite easy to learn if you already speak English, it's grammar is quite flexible.

Reading and writing is another matter, I'm almost fluent in conversation, but I can only write conversationally (e.g., SMS), Im basically illiterate otherwise.

Idioms are also a pain, but you don't need all of that to be functional, argue with taxi drivers, and impress at business meetings.

[cageface]

If it's anything like Vietnamese then the simplicity of the grammer doesn't really get you very far. The tones are the real challenge for a Western speaker. After living in Vietnam for a year I'm fine with the grammar and have a workable vocabulary but still often have a hard time making myself understood because you really have to nail the tones to get your meaning across.

[jliechti1]

I think the bigger problem in Mandarin is the large number of homophones (at least, for me).

To help speakers of non-tonal languages understand how difficult it is to differentiate between tones, after you get used to hearing them - it is as apparent as the differences between "rebel" as in "to rebel" and "rebel" as in "He's a rebel."

So hearing is not as difficult as might you think. However, in line with what cageface said, I think it is easier to hear the difference, than to reproduce it yourself.

[seanmcdirmid]

Tones are easy, you just have to speak naturally and they'll naturally fall out, you don't even have to think about it. Most learned of Chinese overcompensate on tones, they would be better to forget the, and just pick that aspect of Chinese up from practice.