I'm learning Chinese and it's going pretty good and that may be because I already have a knack for languages. Using a strategy as if I'm a child and learning to speak, everybody is brought up with his/her native language with ease, so why not do that a again. Just in the beginning don't use comparissing vernacular just listen and repeat out loud the new tones and words. Then you can learn pinyin, also as if it the first time you learn to write. If you like to learn characters, it's like recognise symbols or reading a face.
I don't say it's going to be fluent but for me this is the easiest way to learn a new language.
I've found myself beginning to learn Chinese out of a strong desire to gain access to the abundance of information, books, and online resources which are currently out of my reach. It feels to me like learning chinese would open up another world in terms of the material I'd have access to, but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and not sure if I'm approaching it right. My first goal is to memorise the 200 most-used characters, so I can hopefully begin to read. I'm not sure if I should start out trying to read, but being able to read Chinese is what I'm really after. T-T Do any of you have suggestions or tips that I can use?