Regarding learning Chinese as a second language:

I highly discourage trying to learn Chinese if your first language is a Latin based one.

There are just so many differences between Chinese and Latin based language that it would be nigh impossible for anyone to learn to speak it very well if they just take classes. I know alot of people who are just taking classes and I cringe everytime they speak because their pronounciation is just horrendous (lack of the accents in English is to blame.....)

You'd need to study by yourself and probably go to China or regularly converse with native Chinese speakers to even be decent. Writing, IMO, is much harder than speaking/listening/reading because syntax in Chinese is very different and there is alot of old Chinese proverbs that good writers use which you won't be able to learn very easily.

Long story short, Chinese, while a practical language to learn, is extremely hard to. I would discourage people from trying to learn it unless they are truly willing to dedicate ALOT of time to the language.