Reddit reviews Mandarin Chinese in 30 Days

Learn the sounds, then the tones, then basic words, then grammar.

I think would recommend getting the Berlitz Mandarin Chinese in 30 Days Book and CD. You should go to Barnes and Noble or another book store and look at it and the other books they have, just to make sure it would suit you.

I looked through it before, and it seems to be quite detailed.

An alternative would be to learn it through online resources, there's certainly no shortage of them. Perhaps glance at Chinese-Tools.com's introductory lessons.

Here's another site that will really help you at the beginning with the pronunciation and tones. It has flash-based audio, which means it plays quickly and easily. No mp3s and no fuss.

Some important points: You WILL need to find someone who is fluent to help you learn. Preferably a native Chinese person, but someone with many years of experience would probably work just fine. You just want to make sure you are on the right track and are avoiding any traditional mistakes (usually pronunciation-wise). It will also help a lot with grammar.

Also, I recommend paying a lot of attention to pronunciation in the beginning. Make sure you get it right. It was only a year after I began learning Chinese that I finally understood some of the nuanced differences between t, c, and z, and between x, q, j and sh, ch, and zh, and it made a HUGE difference in making myself understood (and listening).

(The short of it is t is normal, c is like ts in cats, z is like ds in cards; x, q, and j all end up taking on a subtle y sound--xiao is more like "she-yow" than "shaow", etc... This should all be very clear if you spend enough time on pronunciation, which I sort of didn't.)

Additionally, memorizing the most common radicals will turn learning characters from a tedious, difficult task into a relatively straightforward and relatively painless experience. I highly recommend you investigate them.

And finally, don't ever think you can take an English sentence, translate all the words into Chinese characters, hand it to a Chinese person and have them understand what you are trying to say. 99% of the time, it will not work. When I finally stopped trying to do that direct-translation thing is when my learning really started taking off. You're going to have to wholeheartedly adopt Chinese grammar if you want to be understood. The best way to do this is to listen to what others say and copy it as directly as you can. Change nouns if you need to.

Good luck! I hope some of what I've said is helpful to you.