Resources for Learning Chinese

Unfortunately, I have not progressed nearly as much as I had hoped in learning some basic Chinese before I leave for China. However, I have been able to get a basic orientation to the language and to secure several resources to take with me. I am hoping that I will be able to secure language lessons or a tutor once in Chengdu. The resources I'm taking with me include: (1) Living Language's Ultimate Mandarin Chinese Basic-Intermediate with a text book and forty lessons on CDs, (2) Pimsleur's Mandarin Chinese with sixteen lessons on eight CDs, (3) Instant Immersion's Chinese Mandarin on eight CDs, (4) Chinese Character Flashcards from On-line Chinese Tools, (5) Transparent Language's Chinese Before You Know It Deluxe, (6) Wendy Tung's Easy Chinese Phrasebook & Dictionary (Passport Books), (7) Oxford Starter Chinese Dictionary edited by Boping Yuan and Sally K. Church, (8) Tuttle Language Library's Reading & Writing Chinese - Simplified Character Edition by William McNaughton, and (9) Tutle Language Library's Chinese Character Fast Finder - Simplified Characters by Laurence Matthews.

Dr. Aaron Feng Lan's web site at Florida State University provides a detailed tutorial for downloading and installing the Microsoft Global IME for Chinese plus several other interesting links related to Chinese newspapers, libraries and sites of special interest.

Theron Standford's PinyinTextfield at provides a method to type Pinyin and then copy and paste it into a word processing or other computer program.

These should all be helpful resources as I work to learn basic Chinese during my six-months in Chengdu.