hi,l am from China.if you want to study chinese,you must study pingying first.And you needn't study the grammar too much.

find a firend,begin to chat and chat...

i dont learn chinese,but i speak chinese and im a native speaker. maybe you should begin with pinyin.

I am a chinese ,I want to learn English.

i took a mandarin course a few years ago, for me the basic skill u must have is "interesting", without it is very difficult to reach a progress.