Learning Mandarin

I have always toyed with the idea of getting to know Mandarin because of its exoticity. Today I came across a 2-tape set of beginning Mandarin at the Bedford library and I went for it. The tonal nature of the language is very intriguing. Although I had no trouble imitating the shorter words, the longer words were a real stretch. Supriya was in the back-seat of the van eating her sandwich. She was very amused, both by the funny sounds of the language and by my attempts at imitating them. She also tried imitating some of the sounds. I don't know how far this will go, but it's going to be a lot of fun while it lasts!