Twenty-five years of China. Swell. Of course the first question/reaction I get: “So, your Chinese must be perfect?!”. Aaaaaaaaaah. That always hurts.
My standard answer is (in Chinese if needed): sorry, always too busy, 7 days a week, no time to learn. But I try. So sorry.
Yes I do try. Living in a country where you stare at the TV without having much of a clue what is going on is a frustration. Not to even mention the strong interest to be able to talk with any Chinese. I do defend myself with taxi drivers (my best teachers) and sometimes I wonder how we manage to talk about so many things. Worst for me: seems the pronunciation of my limited vocabulary is pretty good, so Chinese assume I am really fluent and rattle on with full enthusiasm. Help! Ting bu dong!!!! (= I don’t understand)
Most foreigners come here and have the best of intentions to learn Chinese. They look down on me as a kind of retarded, anti-Chinese expat of a bygone era. One year later they still try to order a taxi.
The truth is, Chinese is very hard to learn. I got a devastating look at reality when I bought a nice Pinyin/Chinese-English dictionary. Looking up a word I understood that it would be foolish to learn the language by spending 15 minutes a day. I meet so many bright young people who have studied Chinese for many years. When we interview them, the overwhelming majority is unable to independently use the language for business (except the ones you pay far over US$ 4,000 a month).
Of course some foreigners really master the language and their numbers increase by the day. But discuss with them and you discover it took them years of hard work, passion and dedication. You can’t (seriously) work in Beijing and learn the language. You have to chose.
Frustrating it is and I try my best every day.

China Daily is running some funny and interesting articles about foreigners trying to cope with Chinese. See here an illustration in the article of 29 September 06, it looks much like that devastating moment I had with the dictionary. Sun rubbed the salt in the wound by commenting, “Oh there are many more characters!”. Yes, dear, you are ALWAYS right. Amen. Lesson 1: Chinese is VERY hard to learn; lesson 2: never argue with a Chinese lady, even less if you are married to her.
(FYI: I speak some 6 languages quite decently, NOT including Chinese).