Kung Fu has numerous techniques you can use to defend yourself. It is important to realize that there is a distinction between sparring and self-defense. Sparring has many rules associated with it, whereas people focused on causing you harm will not follow any rules. If you want to learn self-defense it is better to find an Academy that focuses on that rather than sparring. Another thing to keep in mind is that you can learn useful techniques fairly quickly; however, to be able to pull on that knowledge in an adrenaline state or in an attack situation requires consistent training over an extended period of time. Therefore, you will need to make a long- term commitment to your training to gain the full benefit of the self-defense techniques.
