Seconded. I haven't learned Esperanto myself, but plenty of people agree that Esperanto is a great starting place if you're an adult and only speak one western

Seconded. I haven't learned Esperanto myself, but plenty of people agree that Esperanto is a great starting place if you're an adult and only speak one western European language. It's a great confidence builder and it's a non-punishing opportunity to try out different study techniques. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Esperanto then Mandarin will get you to conversational Mandarin more reliably, and possibly also more quickly, than just starting with Mandarin would.