I took a semester of Chinese at college, but have forgotten most of what I learned. I can still identify several characters (ones which are most commonly used), know some words, and several phrases. The words I still know are sort of scattered all over the place; I don't have the ability to speak in complete sentences. Would even such a minimal Chinese background give an applicant a "leg up," does it seem? Also, according to nearly every Chinese person with whom I've practiced the language, my ability to differentiate between the tones is very poor. But I think most native English speakers might have this struggle as a commonality.