Books.
Tourist Guides -- You can now ready to read all the entries correctly.
Dictionaries -- make sure it uses pinyin, and has both traditional and
simplified characters.
Self-teaching Guides -- they are in many price-ranges, depending on if
you want to learn characters or only the spoken language. Some have
CD's. Just make sure the books are really using pin yin. If you see a
letter "Q" in use, you know it is pin yin.
Software.
You can profit from just about any "Learn Chinese" software.
You should buy one that introduces the language to you step-by-step
before buying one that has only listening examples.
Language Partners.
If you find a partner to practice with, it will probably be up to you to
provide a learner's book at your level and have your friend walk through
it with you. Or, you can list the things you want to learn how to do,
and ask your friend to teach you one at a time. Ask if you can record
your conversations.
Tutoring.
This website lists Chinese speakers who are looking for students to
tutor:
http://www.zapchinese.com/chinese_teachers.php
Websites.
Here are some good websites for teaching yourself Chinese:
Go to
http://www.chinapage.com/learnchinese.html where many sites are
listed.
Go to http://chinesepod.com/ and
click on "tour."
Go to
http://www.transparent.com/learn-mandarin-chinese/
Go to
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/languages/mandarin-chinese/index.html
Apps for iPhone or iPod.
To get a Chinese dictionary with many
features, type "Pleco Chinese Dictionary" in the iTunes search box. The
introductory package is free, but you can later buy additional
functions, such as being able to draw a character on your screen and
finding the meaning and sound.
Online
Dictionary
Yellow-Bridge lets you look up words by
approximate spelling, and by drawing the character:
http://www.yellowbridge.com/. Heres how it describes itself on
its home page:
The web's most
comprehensive
Chinese-English
Talking Dictionary. Only site to feature both word and
character decomposition.
o Listen to words pronounced on your computer.
o View sample sentences to really understand the use of a word in context.
o Search for a character just by drawing it.
o Quickly locate any character if you recognize any of its components.
o Use fuzzy pinyin match to locate a word even if you are unsure of its pronunciation.
o Find the most common related words for any word.
o Check out our very cool Etymology Explorer.
Easiest to use
Chinese Flashcards.
Customized for some of the top textbooks, including
Integrated Chinese
and New Practical
Chinese Reader.
Other word lists available too.
Chinese Memory Game.
A fun alternative to flashcards.
YellowTip
popup word translation allows you to read Chinese text even if you don't
know all of the words. Our new improved version will even let you
annotate your own text or any webpage.
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You are welcome to give me ideas for sites to add to this page or any other feedback. You can find my email at http://www.foundbytes.com/Jim%20Bio.htm