Well my dear friend, just practice and read a lot, and repeat and keep practicing and talk with more chinnese guys online... =)

You are wellcome. It seems that you have two questions. Here's the answer. 1. I'm not sure if there is a pinyin book for people who would like to study Chinese as a second language. Although there are definitely many pinyin books for Chinese kids, I don't know if they work good with adult learning. So you'd better find a TCSL(Teaching Chinese as a Second Language) teacher to ask for some advice. 2. Traditional Chinese characters is the only using language which retain characteristics of hieroglyph. The characters are beautiful and meaningful. Simplified Chinese characters, however, has lost the all of that. If I were a kid again, I will never choose Simplified. I think it's very regrettable for our mainland Chinese people, because we lost our culture and tradition.

Thank you for the fast responses. I have had some exposure to pinyin. Is there a book you could reccomend that shows pinyin and Chinese characters together? Also, should I learn traditional or simplified? I like the sound of "simplified". thanks again!

Well, you know, when we were kids, we studied Pinyin and traditional Chinese characters together in elementary school. I think pinyin is easier to learn than traditional Chinese characters for people who study Chinese as a second language. So my suggestion is that you could start from pinyin learning first and practice more with Chinese people.