@Blueblade3000,

I certainly hope your friends catch the Mandarin bug too. Nothing's more rewarding that fluency in another language and many doors it will open up.

I'm glad to hear that you're able to understand some things in your favorite movies. You actually can learn from each other, you can have the opportunity to speak Chinese together as a group, even if you can only speak for a few minutes, it's much better to practice what you know then to wait until such time that you're Mandarin is "better" because that just serves to greatly delay the time that you are better.

Definitely go through the book, ingest it, internalize it, practice every chance you get. Once you know the radicals then writing will be a simple as remembering that 明 ming2 is nothing more than a 日 and a 月 set next to each other.

达到了我所说的水平以后写中文字会变成一件 “小菜一碟“ 的事!

If you have any questions, just pop back on the boards and ask. We'll all be happy to help. Just don't be shy. :)

小虎

BTW: What are some of your favorite Chinese movies?

My favorites are;

Jet Li's The Tai Chi Master: 太极张三丰

Zhang Yi Mou's, The Road Home,（My Parents）: 我的父亲母亲

Zhang Yi Mou's, Hero: 英雄

Temptress Moon (with Gong Li): 风月

The Postman in the Mountains: 那山，那人，那狗

The Legend of Zu: 蜀山传说

The Opium War: 鸦片战争

But there are so many great ones. So many...