oops,it's you again ~ you can take a book you like,just a book giving you a general impression, and you can learn some basic and systematic knowledge of mandarin. if chinese speakers are around you,that would be better. but if there is not,you can just learn it yourself hard. as no native english speakers around me, i can say these easy english. so i think you can also make it .~ good luck

Mandarin for Dummies is actually an excellent book!

I learned from Cheng & Tsui's "Intergrated Chinese Textbook: Simplified Characters" and I think it's a very good place to start. Plus if you buy the textbook I believe it comes with an online code where you can do assignments from the chapters which are very very helpful. I believe you can order off of www.cheng-tsui.com

may be u can talk with Chinese a lot,not to learn a book at first ,it's very bore,u see~

Thanks fellas!