请进同志！！！！
Welcome, all ye learners of Chinese. If we want this forum to stay open, we have to post, so post post post!

Unfortunately, I don't think there are any authorities of Chinese around here. So it's sort of the blind leading the blind, at least for now. We can compare notes in our study, and at least be reminded of ongoing competition every time we come over here...I'm not even sure if I wrote "welcome" correctly. But it means something like "Please come in, Comrades!" So it's good enough...

Well, here is my current situation:
I am using Modern Chinese: A Basic Course by the faculty of Beijing Univeristy. It's a fairly old book. It moves really slowly, and the first 10 or so units are devoted to pronunciation(but now I can pronounce really well, at least), so right now I'm on Unit 20(out of 30). They like to explain everything really thoroughly and repeat themselves, and they only introduce about 10 new words per unit, so I'd say my speaking vocabulary is at roughly 100 words, and my writing vocabulary is much smaller....about 20-30. I'm finding that the toughest part is memorizing characters. I can recognize them in reading, but remembering how to write them is another thing. The book uses the Pinyin transliteration system.
The last thing I went over was reduplicated adjectives, or in other words the very charming and hun-hunish privychka of Chinese of repeating themselves to express emphasis. Example:
那个同志积极的工作
neige tongzhi jiji de gongzuo
That comrade works enthusiastically.

那个同志积积极极的工作
neige tongzhi jijijiji de gong zuo
That comrade works very enthusiastically.

这本书好
zheiben shu hao
This book is good.

这本书好好儿
zheiben shu haohaor
This book is very good.

I also learned the use of 些 , as in

我懂一些泰文
wo dong yixie taiwen
I understand some Thai.

这些书很有意思
zheixie shu hen youyisi
These books are very interesting.(these some books, like if there are some books here you are referring too)

Where does everyone else stand at the moment?

Oh, and today's the last day of Chinese new year celebrations...
新年快乐！！This is the year of the Monkey...meaning my sister turns 24 this year