So, after performing at a cultural event that was entirely in Chinese, the idea has come up for me and some of my training brothers/sisters of trying to learn at least some Chinese.

I know a number of people on this forum have learned varying amounts of Chinese.

Wondering what your opinions are on the payoff vs. costs(temporal mostly I imagine) of learning Chinese for the sake of your kung fu training. (I know it has plenty[and growing] of market value in the business world right now.)

Is it worth the time and effort, or would it be better to spend it other ways?
Do you aim for conversational ability, or just learn useful phrases?
Is it worth it to learn characters, or better just to learn the spoken language?

Obviously just opinion, but I'd like to hear what people have to say. Thanks.