i'm going to start learning mandarin in a few months (i just really want to refresh my german before that). i'll try slowly because my russian and my german also need to improve.

as far as i know, grammar and conjugations (not sure there are any) are very easy.

words are not to hard too learn if you have a musical ear (that i think i have despite tinnitus).

but how complicated is writing? some people told me it was almost impossible to read chinese unless you practice for decades.
is pin-yin a solution? is it wide spread (papers, street signs...), useful or even used at all?

another question now: since most words are mono-syllabic, are there a lot of compound words?

and more generally, how difficult would rate mandarin compared to...let's say russian (for en english speaker)?