Hello /speak/. I would like to learn to speak, read, and write in Chinese. Wikipedia tells me that standard chinese is the official language of China, and that everyone in China (should) understand me if I speak it. I am fully aware that this is a difficult language to teach oneself, and that is why am I here seeking your guidance. Guidance such as: where do I even start to learn?
I try not to be a shill for Rosetta Stone, but for these kinds of languages it's quite good because they use native speakers. For any Chinese language dialect, tone and other factors are very important, and immersion techniques are more effective than most others. Having clearly-speaking voices really enunciating the different native tones of the syllables is important. Immersion technique's big weakness is normally getting into the nuances of grammar, but Chinese has relatively simple grammar (really the only thing simple about the damn language).
Start with immersion for recognition. Study the Hanzi for meaning and writing (I used Remembering Simplified Hanzi by Heisig). Study pronunciation of pinyin or bopomofo. Study sentences to pick up grammar and character readings. Keep it fun.
At the end of the day, if you're not hearing and interpreting it, you won't retain all the knowledge, so you either need a teacher, a patient and interested friend, or a repository of chinese kids' shows.
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6692298/Chinese_Language_Learning_Pack change your location and language to simplified chinese on Youtube. Watch movies, listen to podcasts, play those kill americans video flash games made by the chinese etc. The hardest part about chinese is the writing, which isn't hard at all. People are just extremely lazy. Like exercising, it's not difficult, just too many fat fucks.SAGE has been used.