weeb

Lingodeer/Hello Chinese/ChineseSkill I believe are usually recommended?

100% make sure you nail pinyin and pronunciation first though, particularly stuff that isn't in your native language (which I'm going to assume is English). Good luck, chinese is a bitch

edit: don't know much about textbooks I'm afraid, hopefully somebody else can provide

pleco

duolingo

last i heard duolingo was really really bad for chinese and other asian languages iirc

pleco is rlly good can't believe i forgot it

@zensanity best resources would really depend on your current level of proficiency and what you want to do with the language

As of rn Im basically a complete noob, know literally nothing other than the tf2 classes and basic stuff (i/you/my/hers etc.)

Yes

arctic joe tried to learn mandarin and became a lawyer instead because chinese was too hard

this is the same guy who killed 1000 bots a day in addition to 300 kills in mge as warmups

you will have to work very hard if u are not a VERY smart person

You dont have to necessarily be very smart
but it is tons of work because of the way chinese works

in the end for any language the best way to learn is to immerse yourself as much as possible
you wont retain, if you dont use

lingq is great for reading and listening, $10 a month. however the script of the sinitic languages is really quite difficult to learn and i've never tackled a language with characters instead of a phonetic alphabet. i think reading and listening are the most important skills to start off on.

i'm a big fan of steve kaufmann and his website, lingq. he has a youtube channel but it's pretty ranty. he has a video specifically about mandarin and personally i take this guy's word on language learning as near gospel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMQqDWrJ034

edit: i should add: lingq is a website you should use after you understand the phonology and a bit of grammar about the language. until this point, i would actually recommend a random TSY or linguaphone, etc starter book, or even duolingo

"谢谢" for the advice guys. I'm starting to work my way through hellochinese (I do a section in pinyin/characters to get pronunciation and then just the characters). I like the variety of teaching methods it has.

As for a book, I'm looking to get this one: https://www.amazon.com/New-Practical-Chinese-Reader-Textbook/dp/7561910401/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Thanks for the vid as well muffinz, will def take his advice.

i might just learn to speak mandarin, japanese for the yen that im handling

Not got any specific resources but:

Pinyin is easiest to start with since you can guess how the character sounds.

Start with learning the 4 intonations or whatever they are called in English (4 声). This is what separates good and bad speakers, and it can completely change the meaning of a sentence.

If possible, I'd suggest picking up primary school Chinese literacy books; most books for year 1/2 (grade 1/2 for yanks) pupils have the pinyin on top of the word.

I would not bother with learning to write Chinese by hand. It is too much effort imo, and as long as you know pinyin, you can type out Chinese on a phone or PC or whatever.

I think a channel called phoenix tv (not sure about the English translation, but it's called 凤凰卫视) did a few TV shows for Mandarin learners. Google or youtube Dashan (大山), he's a white guy who speaks almost perfect Mandarin.

If you need any help learning it, hmu. I'm a British born Chinese so I know about learning this shit B)