I very strongly recommend this, too. Fun and practical. I have been taking Mandarin lessons (eChineseLearning.com) every day for about three months, and am ha

I very strongly recommend this, too. Fun and practical. I have been taking Mandarin lessons (eChineseLearning.com) every day for about three months, and am having the time of my life. I took my fourth business trip to Beijing after only one month of lessons (after self-teaching for about two years), and I was amazed by my ability to interact, and even negotiate prices. It was huge fun. After only one month, I signed up for their 5-lessons-a-week plan. I get up at 6 a.m. every day to converse with my teacher in China via Skype. I would definitely suggest one-on-one lessons, as I'm doing it. I get maximum reading and discussion time, and the conversation always starts with a description of what I've done over the last day (or over the weekend). So I'm learning all sorts of words (e.g., "clients") that I wouldn't get from a regular class. I also know some Spanish and Hebrew. Hebrew is useful for me since I live in Israel, and Spanish is far easier to pronounce. But Chinese has been surprisingly easy overall, has helped me with my travels, and give me a big kick.