I'm interested in learning Mandarin to a degree (enough to be able to navigate the streets, have a simple conversation, order food in a restaurant, not talk politics or on that level). I've taken Hebrew classes and Spanish classes and I caught onto both of those extremely quickly and I have a gift with languages. I will be taking three or four quarters of Mandarin Chinese at the local University and a year or maybe more or less afterwards (with more classes) I was thinking of spending four to six weeks in China while taking about 5 or 6 hours of intensive classes a day. How long do you think it would take for me?

Having taken both Hebrew and Spanish and currently learning Mandarin... I will have to tell you that Mandarin is so much harder. The pronunciation and the tones. It will take you a few months to even get the pronunciation correct enough for a native to understand you.

Before you do any learning at all, listen to music and Mandarin Movies with subtitles. You need to hear it spoken first. Then you will be able to recognise the speech patterns when you start learning.

Good Luck...

Zhu ni hao yun

Jia You!

a long time about ten eyers at lest

About 5 years.

It appears that you have a talent for languages so I would say within 6 weeks study with a native speaker, you should be able to carry a simple conversation. Basic conversation in Mandarin Chinese is not too difficult. It is the reading and writing that will take more time - probably 6-9 months.

You will need about 500 characters to read a basic menu and probably 1000-1500 to navigate the streets. However most cities have enough English so you really don't have to worry about unless you go to the smaller towns or country.

To read a newspaper or online article, probably 4000 characters and about 10,000 words. Keep in mind that words consists of one or more characters so you need to learn the characters and the words.

Your plan of 1 year language study at your local university and 6 weeks of intensive language study in Beijing or Shanghai is ideal.

I've read that some Stanford students (native English speakers) with one year of Chinese language before arriving at Beida (Peking University) and only after 3 months was able to get around Beijing on their own, converse with local students, and order food at restaurants with ease.

Jiayou!

P.S. You may find this blog of some interest to you - http://zhongwen.7xpub.com/