First notebook entry: Introducing myself

I'm Olivia. I live in China.
I like to listen to all kinds of music,except for heavy metal and disco music.
I would like poeple to post<strike>ting</strike> me some good songs.
I can speak Chinese, English, and a little bit Japanese.
In my spare time, I like to <strike>do some </strike>daydream<strike>s</strike> and <strike>do some </strike>read<strike>ing</strike> and other stuff that I can't think of offhand.
And I would like to find some nice people to chat with.
Love you all.
(I'm really tired today and thats all <strike>what </strike>I can <strike>put</strike> write.)

我很高兴认识你。

I minored in Chinese at the university level, and my recommendation for you is to first learn radicals, than focus on the most commonly used characters. There are a limited number of radicals, and after you have them memorized, it makes studying the characters themselves somewhat easier. After you get these characters down, branch out to what interests you. You can find some books on Amazon for the most commonly used characters in Chinese speech/writing. If you have a Macintosh, I would recommend Provoc. Although support is discontinued, it's still available free on the internet. It was an absolutely indispensable part of my Chinese studies during college. You can type in the character, the english, and add the pinyin in the comments. When you review, it can organize Characters that you have incorrect the most, and you can label parts of speech. Repetition, repetition, repetition. It's how many of the Chinese students that I taught in China learned their first characters. As for grammar, Chinese doesn't have a truly set grammar except for Subject - Time - Place - Action (although there are variants of this). There are a lot of different grammar patterns in Chinese, so it's important to focus on the patterns and get them down so you can produce them automatically without thinking, and then move to other patterns. There are also Chinese grammar pattern books in Amazon. Best of luck.

去过中国一次。我在河南洛阳住了六个月。我住在哪里得时后教英语、学习汉语、旅游、什么的。我觉得我最喜欢吃的东西是辣子鸡丁还是担担面。又辣又好吃。我还有去了西安旅游，在哪里他们有回族的区。这个地方有很好吃的东西。最后我回去北京，这里的饭还可以。

I'm sure a lot of people on italki would be happy to help you with your english!

我最好的朋友