Roight, here goes:
I've been fencing for nearly 6 years. Welsh U18 champion twice, 16th in the British U18s, and won a few other competitions :thepimp: . It's good for fitness and reflexes, but it's
useless for self defence. If you want to kill people with swords do Iaijutsu.
I've been practicing Lau Gar Kungfu for about 18 months. What others have said is true - you won't get incredible skills overnight, but give it a decade and you'll be rather hard.

It's good for general fitness, flexibility and strength/stamina, and at medium/high levels you learn knife/stick defence, and then advanced weapons such as the broadsword (like a large machete), spears, butterfly knives, etc.
Lau Gar is quite different to Wing Chun. Wing Chun is based on very fast, hard-hitting strikes (including high kicks) and avoidance of attacks (AFAIK), whereas styles like Lau Gar use more blocks and hand techniques.
It depends what you want to do, really - if you're huge, do Judo. If you're tiny, do Wing Chun or Flower Fist Kungfu. You might also want to look at Jiujutsu or Aikido, which share elements of Karate, Judo and Iaido, and give a broad range of techniques to choose from (strikes, locks, grappling and weapons).