Chinese language is a challange

I came China and took the opportunity to learn the language. I've learned a few languages before but Chinese is different from them. I had two main difficult areas, tones and writing. I think most of foreigners have similar difficulties.
The school staff is kind and ready to help. It's very important in the schocking mements when I realize that mixed two words which sound so similar (for me, for Chinese they are completely different of course). I feel the staff do all what they can, but an old dog can't easily learn new tricks.