ny-body that tells you it's a piece of piss has never really attempted to study it- or attempted but failed when the novelty wore off.

I don't agree. I can speak a little cantonese--can you? Cantonese has more tones and is MUCH harder than pu tong hua. Also try wu dialect (shang hai hua), again, very hard. Mandarin is easy peasy by comparison, and anyone who can learn English, can learn it, especially thanks to pinyin and there only being 4 tones. Not showing off, just stating some facts.