It is actually easy to type tone marks. If using a mac computer you must have the keyboard set to US extended then to type the tones:

• hold the option key down then a for first tone ¯

• hold option key down then e for second tone´

• hold option key down then v for third toneˇ

• hold option key down and the ~ key for fouth tone`

To add the tone on top of the letter you just type the letter after you type the tone combo.

For example for e to have 3rd tone ě:

• hold option key down and v key then type e. 

很好啊。加油。

我也是老师可是我教英文。教课的时候我不说中文因为对我来说英文环境是重要。老师学生都说英文。虽然我会中文但是如果我的学生不懂一些英文的单词或者短语我用别的方法告诉他们那个英文的意思。比如说：在黑板上画画儿，用照片，用动作但是我不说中文。

我是中文学生的时候我肯定不要我的老师用英文。如果我听不懂他的中文我自己用词典或者问老师“不好意思你可以在说一遍吗?我听不懂。”去年我在微博上看过一个对外汉语老师教中文。他很少用中文。他用英文教课。其实我有点儿不高兴因为她的课有两个外国学生常常跟老师用中文，可是那个老师无所谓她继续用英文。这个不是中文课吗？你的学生想跟你用中文可是你继续用英文聊天儿。差不多一个月以后我看过一个别的对外汉语老师视频。她跟学生100%用中文。她的外国学生都用中文。我觉得那个老师很好。

我喜欢“桥梁”虽然桥梁的课文很旧但是那本书的语法部分特别好。

The idea is interesting. However, if you get a tattoo of an english saying translated into chinese you may run into a chinese person who will see it and ask "What does that mean?" Then after you explain it to them they may say "Well I think the translation is wrong it should be ...(and they tell you what they think the chinese should be)." You might want to consider getting a quote from maybe a chinese classic novel or trying a 4 or 8 character cheng yu. Also you may want to consider getting the tattoo done by a person who knows how to tattoo chinese characters. I've seen some tattoos done by tattoo artists who have not written any characters before in their lives and the tat looks horrible.

Well I have a book in my collection called "A practical chinese grammar for foreigners" written by Li Dejin, Cheng Meizhen. It is very Grammar technical based and usefull. I use it as my Grammar dictionary. It is in english but you need to know how to read characters becuase the Grammar point examples given are only in characters with no pinyin.

Hope this helps

It would have to be "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline. This book has 80s western culture (video games music movies tv shows) mixed in an awesome plot set in an online virtual world.

That is a good question. I think you should ask yourself how do you want to speak Mandarin?
Accurate with a non-foreign accent (sounding very close to a Chinese native) or clear accurate (with a foreign accent)?

My goal in speaking mandarin is not to try to sound like a native Chinese speaker (however living in the north east of china it’s turning into that) but to be able to communicate with Chinese people so they can understand what I am saying. Yes I will have a western accent when I speak but as long as I get the pronunciation correct (with tones) and speak clearly I believe the western accent doesn't matter. This route involves doing pinyin drills and tone drills on top of learning words grammar etc.

If your goal is to sound as close as possible to a Chinese native speaker then you need to choose what Chinese accent are you aiming for? Do you want to sound like a native Beijing resident or a native Shanghai resident etc. Much like how Chinese speakers learning English decide what western accent they want (should I sound like I'm from the UK or Australia or USA etc). In this case you need to do lots of 模仿 or imitating of that part of china's accent. You do this my watching TV programs from that area of China or finding a language partner from that area of China. This is of course on top of the usual pinyin and tone drills.

One last note, two years ago I was listening to a VOA radio program about how to learn a language. The experts on the program said you need to approach the language much like an actor would when learning lines in a movie or tv show. In a nutshell you need to “act out” the language. Show expression when saying the words. The acting out will eventually become natural emotion when saying the words. for example when you say "happy" you will be happy etc.

Hope this helps

都很好。谢谢你。虽然我已经认识那些 俗语但是肯定好多外国人没看过。希望以后你继续写这样的文章。