Mandarin is surprisingly unnecessary for living in China for the most part. Don't get me wrong, almost noone speaks English, but having grown up playing games like the legend of Zelda, I'm just a silent protagonist
I generally have a passion for language learning but we have google translate now. For basic geomaxxing purposes I dare say learning the local language is only useful for making friends/girlfriends with locals and not much else. If that's not important to you then fuck it. In the grand 26 most quality mates in every country speak English and are immersed in western culture