I started learning chinese mandarin using Dr. Pimsleur’s Method. The lessons are about 30 minutes once a day. The method itself consists of learning of core words and phrases using a dialog with a native speaker and answering questions. To use the learning method you have to know english and you need 30 minutes of piece and quiet a day ( which is rare ). Every next lesson adds few more words with which you can form many more phrases that you might need on a daily basis if you go to the corresponding country. It is very interesting how in chinese you have to talk with specific intonation because one “word” spoken with different intonations can mean 4-5 totaly different meanings. The price of one of the three parts of chinese lessons is around 200 bucks but if you go to audible.com you can join for 3-4 bucks and you get a free credit to dowload one audio book and they have the first part for Mandarin Chinese. It consists of 8 lessons, so in about 2 weeks I’ll post here what is my progress on speaking ( writing is a totaly different thing ) Mandarin Chinese.