Given the choice, would people like to take the time to learn a language (Mandarin) with proper eloquence and articulation, or, would they rather just learn the words, phrases and expressions without caring too much about how to deliver them properly.

If your question is what's better "say but not write" ot "write but not say" my answer is "both are bad". Final decision is defined by the purpose. Three dozens of words spoken out will give you the fame of "Oh, your Chinese is so good"! Three dozen of words written will give you the feeling of ant in the Boeing. Anything serious (spoken or written) starts after three thousands.

As for culture learning the language you will unavoidably come across such things as holidays, slang, system of legislation, education, human relations etc. For example there is no word "sister" in Chinese, it's always "elder sister" or "younger sister". Why? Because of the culture. So there is no question actually. I'm really curious to see how you will avoid learning culture together with the language, it's like walking in the desert but keeping away from the sand :)

With Mandarin, the tone is absolutely vital.
Different tones can make the word mean something completely different.

For example, "ma" can mean mother or horse depending on the tone.

Don't worry...I'm Italian and I live in London since 2007...
I was forced to learn English....I was afraid to enter in a Shop and talk with the shop assistant... So if you wanna learn a new language, you should go in the country where it's spoken!!!Anyway I'm attending the university in Italy and i didn' pass my English exam!!! My teacher is a b*tch...I wish she'll get run over one of these day... lol

Cultural competence and linguistic competence are equally important.

I'm a qualified Mandarin/English interpreter in Australia. When I took the accreditation course, other than learning how to interpret as quickly and accurately as possible, we also had contextual studies as part of the compulsory units, so we had to study the legal system/history/traditions of China as well as Australia. Because there're a lot of expressions you won't understand unless you're part of that culture, and the particular meanings may be different from the literal meaning.

Languages evolve with their cultures, they're inseparable. If you only learn the expressions and don't care about how to deliver them, you can't say you LEARN the language at all