I've always wanted to learn more languages. Currently, I think I'm very proficient with English which I've been learning since first grade, and during 4 years of high school I learned German as well, but it's nothing I'd brag about. I can understand very little of what I hear and read, but I can't converse.

Ideally, what I'd like to learn as well is Russian, French, Italian and Chinese. These past few weeks I've been contemplating to start Chinese, but there are a few problems. First, there isn't a very large Chinese population here and I've found only a few schools list it in their program, and one of them clearly noted that due to low interest they aren't able to organize a large enough group to do it. For that same reason I'll have no private interaction or a way to further my knowledge outside the school. And secondly, I'm a bit scared. I've been quite good at learning new languages, but I've read that to be able to use (read/write) the language proficiently you need to know at least 4000-5000 characters. Now that not only looks scary, but impossible as well.

So, what do you guys think? What languages do you speak (as a second language)? Did anyone learn Chinese (Mandarin) or a similar (Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese) as a second language? How hard was it?