Suggestions for learning Chinese?

If you really want to learn it, just move to China, Taiwan or Singapore for a year or two. Unless you have insane willpower, it will be hard to maintain disciplined study of Chinese characters, but living in East Asia might help motivate you. You'll also be able to practice speaking with anyone, anytime.

Chinese characters often do hint at the sound. There are different types of characters, some of them borrow a sound (or similar sound) from one of the radicals in the character. There are roughly 150 radicals, and they can often contribute to either sound or meaning of the characters they make up. Unfortunately, you will lose some of this beauty if you study the simplified characters used on the mainland, as they've trimmed down or contorted some of the original radicals.

My favorite book for characters is (I think) McNaughton, Reading and Writing Chinese Characters. Here:

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Writing-Chinese-Traditional-Character/dp/0804832064

It gives stroke order, and starts with the simplest radicals, working toward more complicated. It's a great complement to any traditional speaking-based Chinese text. For self-study here in Taiwan, I liked the Practical Audio Visual series, but I doubt you'd find it outside Taiwan.

If you want to understand Mandarin but you have no clue the place to begin then a program for Mandarin is the greatest on-line course for the newbies because it actually begins with the basis.

Many cultural differences exist 'tween us 'n' them. Having spent about 3 1/2 years cumulative time in Asian cities over 10 years, the best advice I can give to you (while doubting you are sincere in the premise for your question and thus will not grasp the significance of it) is to get about six months of college level Asian Culture, History, Philosophy, and 20th Century and Contemporary PoliSci. Then consider the year-long study of a language where many words (having very variant meanings} "all sound the same" to most western minds. Unless you are one who has natural "perfect pitch", you will, as a young adult have some real difficulty, with hearing the "words". If you are older the learning seems to be more slow or more difficult or more hopeless! But do give it the "ol' college try", for most adult westerners provide some real amusement while they're talking "baby talk" in Chinese. Oh, did I mention that learning to read and write the language just might be easier? At least you will be more likely to communicate the meanings you intend. But I am only a "westerner" myself, what could I know? I urge you to consider the features and benefits also of daily tutoring by and association with more than one "native speaker" from the region where you will be doing most of your business. That is if your can learn to hear and "sound off" beyond the "baby talk" level. Most folks from other parts of the world never quite get to that level it seems.

http://www.cucas.edu.cn/
I will suggest you to apply through CUCAS, CUCAS is a professional online platform for international students to apply for Chinese universities, it has a strong relationship with over 300 universities in China. They do not ask for any fee, the application fee is collect by them but only on behalf of the university, CUCAS also hold social activities for international students so they will not get bored, they always try to think as a foreigner and help international students to solve their problems. Very nice.

it might be easier to learn individual words and phrases and then incorporate them into your daily life. Karaoke and movies are great ways to learn the written and spoken as you learn to match sounds with characters and you can guess the meaning by watching the actors. You can also buy/download material to help you learn Mandarin, just look for ones designed for children, as they are simple and easy-to-understand.