You _can_ make progress without moving to China, but you need to have much more time and will power than most people can muster with work and other things. I know a guy in the UK who spends about 5-6 hours per week studying Chinese (3-4 hours on Skype with a tutor, plus time studying) and he's made steady progress. However, you've got to put in dedicated time outside your lessons to try composition, practice listening etc.
Having said that, below are some resources worth investigating:
Audio courses:
- Pimsleur Mandarin (3 sets of 30 half-hour lessons. Available on CD.)
- ChinesePod.com (short audio lessons based around different topics/tasks. Generous free trial last time I checked.)
You really need to get your pinyin and tone pronunciation down. Just search google for 'learning pinyin' and you will find lots of free resources. There are three things worth trying to master here:
- Pronunciation of each of the four tones (actually five, as there is also a neutral tone)
- Pronunciation of each of the 21 initials (b, p, m, f etc., most of which are the same as English, but some, like x, z, c, zh are very different) and each of the 35 ‘finals’ (like -ong, -uang, -in etc.)
- (later) Some words consist of more than one syllable, and there are some rules for when tones change based on the tone of the following syllable.
Dictionary:
- Pleco for iphone or Android: the free version is a must-have. There are bundles for additional functionality. The two additional functions I use(d) are the full-screen handwriting input (paid on iphone) and the spaced-repetition flashcard functionality (paid). This app is the reason I bought my first iOS device.
- Nciku (online dictionary; search by pinyin or by writing the character)
Reading/writing characters (probably work on some basic oral Chinese before doing this):
- Skritter.com (subscription-based service best used with a mouse or Wacom tablet; doesn’t work well with a laptop touchpad)
Having said that, below are some resources worth investigating:
Audio courses:
- Pimsleur Mandarin (3 sets of 30 half-hour lessons. Available on CD.)
- ChinesePod.com (short audio lessons based around different topics/tasks. Generous free trial last time I checked.)
- http://popupchinese.com/ (similar to ChinesePod. Worth trying both.)
- Clavis Sinica’s collection of short audio samples: http://clavisinica.com/voices.html
Pronunciation/Pinyin:
You really need to get your pinyin and tone pronunciation down. Just search google for 'learning pinyin' and you will find lots of free resources. There are three things worth trying to master here:
- Pronunciation of each of the four tones (actually five, as there is also a neutral tone)
- Pronunciation of each of the 21 initials (b, p, m, f etc., most of which are the same as English, but some, like x, z, c, zh are very different) and each of the 35 ‘finals’ (like -ong, -uang, -in etc.)
- (later) Some words consist of more than one syllable, and there are some rules for when tones change based on the tone of the following syllable.
Dictionary:
- Pleco for iphone or Android: the free version is a must-have. There are bundles for additional functionality. The two additional functions I use(d) are the full-screen handwriting input (paid on iphone) and the spaced-repetition flashcard functionality (paid). This app is the reason I bought my first iOS device.
- Nciku (online dictionary; search by pinyin or by writing the character)
Reading/writing characters (probably work on some basic oral Chinese before doing this):
- Skritter.com (subscription-based service best used with a mouse or Wacom tablet; doesn’t work well with a laptop touchpad)
- Book: http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Writing-Chinese-Simplified-Cha...