[kyochan]

Oh 哪个 please!

I disagree with Chinese characters being difficult, at least the part about learning all the characters. There is a methodical approach to learning all the character (there are up to 3000 needed as the article states). I've been using http://smart.fm/ because they took this approach and wrapped it up in a neat flash app.

So while it takes years to master all the nuances of writing and speaking Chinese, I find that reading and understanding it takes less time.

[xiaoma]

I can read over 3,000 characters and still struggle with reading authentic texts written for adults. Obviously, the language is learnable but the writing system is a lot more work than most languages.

David Moser's essay Why Chinese is so damn hard goes into more detail as to how it is one natural language can be more difficult for foreign students than another.

[sho]

Here's another good resource for those learning Chinese:

http://nciku.com/

I would hope that no-one in this generally highly intelligent community is delusional enough to think that learning Chinese isn't going to be a good investment in their future, especially anyone under 30.