As a Chinese student exactly in your shoes i'd also have to suggest taking a class, whether it be part of Uni, or at a local college, or even a local private tutor. I don't know if you do other languages or anything but reading, writing, listening and speaking practice are your top priority, and a class is the best place to lay a foundation for that. In terms of personal study, and additional resources outside the classroom there's stacks of things you can do. Italki is great, but you could also download Anki, a flashcard program to help you learn new words, PPS Stream, so you can watch Chinese TV, QQ, so you can chat to friends (i'll give you my QQ number so you can meet people if you like =D ), and there's a great dictionary called nciku.com i use for new words. There's many different ways to tackle it, and i mention the above so that you can have it surrounding you, the more you replace your english entertainment and social life with chinese, the more familiar you'll be and the easier it'll be to learn. Sorry if i say some things you already know, trying to cover all bases. This stuff is fun, so i guess i come off a little 'too' interested, but hopefully this was of use to you!

Like learning any languages, we need to practice speaking the language in a conversation. Learning a language by reading a book is like learning how to cook by just reading a recipe book. With that said, simply post a comment on my profile do let me know if I can learn Italian from you and I can teach you Mandarin. Cheers!

You need to get books to read to make you a reader. Start with books for Chinese primary 1 kids. And I really mean Primary 1, the speed the use in China is quite high. There is plenty such readers on the market (in Chinese book shops though). Another good way is the readers series from "Chinese Breeze", they have about 350 different characters and you can learn those within a few days. http://www.studychineseculture.com/book.asp?id=4620

sarina,in my opinion,as Kaien said you'd better take a class first.It's really important and necessary,you know,begining a completely strange work is very difficult.

In my opinion,you should know how to pronounce Chinese Pinyin and to use it skilled .Then, if you have a Chinese dictionary,you could learn by yourself.