How Hard is the Chinese Language to Learn?

The difficulty of a language is relative to the person trying to learn it. In the case of the Chinese language, I have to say that it's a pretty difficult language to learn for several reasons.

Why the Chinese Language is so Hard

1. The pronunciation is almost impossible to master. Sure, you can be understood, but you will always be a foreigner no matter how hard you try to get the pronunciation right (unless you're very young).
2. The writing system is completely different to anything that you're used to. It will take you years to learn all the characters needed to write a letter or something else of importante.
3. Reading is incredibly difficult and if you forget a single character, you might miss the whole meaning of a sentence.
4. Understanding the spoken language is also very difficult. The chinese language is based on tones. The language has four tones and they mean everything. For example, "ma" with different tones can mean either mother or horse.

As you can see, the Chinese language is pretty difficult to learn. I think that the main reason why it's so difficult is because it's just too different from anything we're used to.

Is Learning the Chinese Language Easy for Anyone?

Of course! Just like you might find it relatively easy to learn German (because it's similar to English in many ways), so do Korean, Japanese and other Eastern Asian people find it easier to learn Mandarin. If you have any knowledge of the forementioned languages, you might realize that learning Mandarin is much easier than you previously thought!

Additionally, learning a new language is always easier for younger people. The younger you start learning the language the better, which is why you should start right now! 

Lastly, there are people with a natural talent for learning new languages. If you already know several languages, chances are that learning Mandarin won't be too difficult.