<p>Regarding starting with pinyin or characters: <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/3806/teaching-pinyin-and-characters-together-vs-teaching-pinyin-then-characters">It's funny, I recently asked this question myself.</a> In your case, I would recommend:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Starting with basics of pinyin... getting the hang of pronunciation. <a href="http://talkbank.org/pinyin/Trad_chart.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">TalkBank</a> provides a pinyin chart that pronounces each for you given the selected tone. It's really cool. Just choose a tone, and click on a vowel/initial.</p></li>
<li><p>Learn the 4 tones. </p>

<p>Mā: 妈 = mother<br>
Má: 麻 = hemp<br>
Mǎ: 马 = horse<br>
Mà: 骂 = scold</p></li>
<li><p>Start pairing characters with pinyin. Learn the basics/greetings.</p>

<p>Nǐ hǎo: 你好 = hello<br>
Xièxiè：谢谢 = thank you<br>
Bù kèqì: 不客气 = you're welcome<br>
Zài jiàn: 再见 = good bye</p></li>
<li><p>Solidify what you've learned by practicing in a chat room. I recommend <a href="http://zhongwen.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Zhongwen.com</a> > then go to LiaoTian! (chat). Informal chat rooms were hugely helpful for me to get started.</p></li>
<li>Once you have some basics of chatting down, maybe head over to a Chinese restaurant and try ordering in Chinese (most speak Mandarin or at least some Mandarin that I've encountered). Or find a local Chinese market, or anything... Anything for you to go and practice speaking Mandarin. This will get you comfortable speaking. But you need a foundation with the words first. So keep practicing them.</li>
<li>For a book, Stumpy Joe recommended <a href="http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/7561910401" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this one</a>. Also look at the <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1120/resources-for-learning-mandarin-chinese">community wiki</a> for Chinese learning resources.</li>
</ul>

<p>Good luck! If I think of anything else I'll let ya know.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-23T20:16:44.183Z
Your answer is just what I was asking for. Very thankful for book, chat room and TalkBank recommendation.
Bohdan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-23T19:15:57.410Z
2013-10-23T19:43:09.593Z
2017-04-13T12:48:06.457Z
user3871
<p>Start with PinYin. Don't worry about writing and grammar at this stage. Find a native speaker to correct your tones. I have used chinese-bootcamp.com practice session several times, very useful to practice with native speakers. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-16T07:56:06.437Z
Pinyin is difficult and illogical for people who don't already know Chinese. And it makes it easy to ignore tones until it's too late. I suspect learning through pinyin is a reason so few otherwise fluent foreigners have good tones.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-15T16:25:25.117Z
2014-02-15T16:25:25.117Z
Alex
<p>I'm about to start learning mandarin chinese myself, without any teachers but with a help of textbooks and video (audio) lessons. My question is: where do I start, I mean, is it better to start with pinyin or with <em>Han characters</em>? What words do I need to start with? What about grammar?
Maybe someone can recommend me a good book to start with?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-02-18T06:11:11.483Z
Please see this: http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1120/resources-for-learning-mandarin-chinese
xqMogvKW
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-23T16:48:57.337Z
Ahhh they're not hieroglyphs!
Stumpy Joe Pete
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-23T18:28:08.477Z
Thank you for pointing out. Is it better now?
Bohdan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-10-26T22:14:42.833Z
After you start learning, you can use this site as a sort of forum to ask for clarification or help!
grayQuant
<mandarin><pinyin><learning><resources><books>
Where to start learning mandarin
# Where to start learning mandarin

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-10-23)

I'm about to start learning mandarin chinese myself, without any teachers but with a help of textbooks and video (audio) lessons. My question is: where do I start, I mean, is it better to start with pinyin or with *Han characters*? What words do I need to start with? What about grammar?
Maybe someone can recommend me a good book to start with?

**Tags:** mandarin, pinyin, learning, resources, books

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Ahhh they're not hieroglyphs!  
> **username_0**: Thank you for pointing out. Is it better now?  
> **username_3**: After you start learning, you can use this site as a sort of forum to ask for clarification or help!  
> **username_1**: Please see this: http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1120/resources-for-learning-mandarin-chinese  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2013-10-23. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

Regarding starting with pinyin or characters: [It's funny, I recently asked this question myself.](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/3806/teaching-pinyin-and-characters-together-vs-teaching-pinyin-then-characters) In your case, I would recommend:

* Starting with basics of pinyin... getting the hang of pronunciation. [TalkBank](http://talkbank.org/pinyin/Trad_chart.html) provides a pinyin chart that pronounces each for you given the selected tone. It's really cool. Just choose a tone, and click on a vowel/initial.
* Learn the 4 tones.

  Mā: 妈 = mother  
  Má: 麻 = hemp  
  Mǎ: 马 = horse  
  Mà: 骂 = scold
* Start pairing characters with pinyin. Learn the basics/greetings.

  Nǐ hǎo: 你好 = hello  
  Xièxiè：谢谢 = thank you  
  Bù kèqì: 不客气 = you're welcome  
  Zài jiàn: 再见 = good bye
* Solidify what you've learned by practicing in a chat room. I recommend [Zhongwen.com](http://zhongwen.com/) > then go to LiaoTian! (chat). Informal chat rooms were hugely helpful for me to get started.
* Once you have some basics of chatting down, maybe head over to a Chinese restaurant and try ordering in Chinese (most speak Mandarin or at least some Mandarin that I've encountered). Or find a local Chinese market, or anything... Anything for you to go and practice speaking Mandarin. This will get you comfortable speaking. But you need a foundation with the words first. So keep practicing them.
* For a book, username_2 Joe recommended [this one](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/7561910401). Also look at the [community wiki](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1120/resources-for-learning-mandarin-chinese) for Chinese learning resources.

Good luck! If I think of anything else I'll let ya know.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Your answer is just what I was asking for. Very thankful for book, chat room and TalkBank recommendation.  

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2014-02-15. Score: -1

Start with PinYin. Don't worry about writing and grammar at this stage. Find a native speaker to correct your tones. I have used chinese-bootcamp.com practice session several times, very useful to practice with native speakers.

> **Comments:**
> **username_6**: Pinyin is difficult and illogical for people who don't already know Chinese. And it makes it easy to ignore tones until it's too late. I suspect learning through pinyin is a reason so few otherwise fluent foreigners have good tones.  

---

