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I have been speaking Chinese for 7 years and this is one of the questions I get asked most. The simple answer is: it depends on how much effort you put into it.

I'm not going to pretend that you can learn to speak Chinese fluently in a week, it does take time to get used to the sounds of the language and the grammar, just like any language.

If you work at it for at least an hour a day, I think it would be very possible to start having simple conversations after 3 -- 6 months.

You might be able to get to basic fluency, where you can basically express yourself although you are far from perfect and there are a lot of words you don't know after a year and a half to two years.

After the 2 year mark you can be pretty fluent, and in my experience it is all about improving your listening ability, understanding more and more, increasing your vocabulary, and improving your pronunciation. It will become much more natural.

Chinese is a very rich language and there is always more to learn, but don't let that put you off. You can easily learn to speak enough to travel and get by in a few months. The most important thing is to keep going! Chinese people really appreciate foreigners speaking even a bit of their language, and the more you can speak, the more you will get from it!