I will start:
Chinese Panorama: Approaching Chinese.
Just started learning from it couple of weeks ago.

I found learning to speak some basic Mandarin from audio CD's before tackling reading and writing a big help.

Used Pimsleur 1,2 & 3 followed by another set of audio CD's to build some vocabulary. Pimsleur gave me the basis for proper pronunciation and sentence structure with about 800 words so Chinese could always understand what I was saying although with only a small vocabulary, I could only understand 15% -20% of what they were saying to me. It's a little tough when they understand you well and then they don't comprehend why you can't understand them.

Then went on to Chinese Interactive which is a package containing books, audio CD and and CD-ROMS to prepare for Intermediate HSK by Sinolingua. This package teaches about 1200 words and their characters in situational conversations. An additional 3800 or so words are learned through reading their poems, sayings, and other cultural background.

Currently doing Business edition of Sinolingua and expect to pick up about 800-900 additional words there.

I have made extensive daily use of Pleco flashcards to help memorize the characters, tones and definitions of these words.

I really think that the learning process is very different for each individual and their method of learning. If for example you are learning in a classroom environment, you will probably have a very different experience than mine where I am learning on my own without qualfied tutors or teachers.

i learn from a private tutor. it was convenient yet lonely to have someone come to the house 3x a wk. i want to change come fall to a small class setting. i just don't know where to start looking. ok. i know where to start looking, i just HAVEN'T yet. (it's been a looooong summer).

my first books?

Questions and Answers: A Course of Speed-up Oral Chinese for Beginners (peking university press). i liked it. book full of simple question words and each chapter built vocab upon them. how much, who, which, what, how, when, etc... i still go back to it.

when i was half way thru that book, i started a companion - Rapid Literacy in Chinese - New Approaches to Chinese Learning (sinolingua) oh, there's an isbn on this one - 7-80052-695-x

and when i was almost thru w/ the first book, i started the companion's companion - The Most Common Chinese Radicals - New Approaches to Chinese Learning (sinolingua) isbn - 978-7-80052-576-6

i haven't finished either companion book yet. it was supposed to be more of a "learn on your own" kind of thing. i'm not so good on "learn on your own" anymore. no cram for exams worry. i can pick out the major cities at the airports. and i know what arugula looks like in the grocery store without having to smell it. what more can i ask for? of course, i can't get the strokes down in the right order. so if you don't watch me write, it MIGHT look close.

I'm going to date myself and admit that Gubo and Palanka guided me into the fold.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practical_Chinese_Reader

(To the question below, nope, she marries Chinese and has a kid.)

Did they get it on in the end?