Oh, and the numbers next to the Chinese syllables refer to their tones. Getting your tones right is very important, obviously, but don’t let it paralyze you. Even if you screw up the tones, the Chinese speaker hearing you will likely figure out your meaning from context.
Practice, practice, practice!
A lot of the messages on these boards are idiosyncratic. You are more likely to get messed up even more.
You can also try USEnet newsgroups.
I have found I am too dumb to make newsgroups work for me under my current setup.
The mix of standard Chinese, colloquial Cantonese, typos and just plain bad Chinese (§Ù¤l–>¤¶«ü¡M ¤^¤H¼¨–>¶Â¤H¼¨ or §J¤H¼¨, for recent examples) on those boards can be daunting, but I think I know enough to not get messed up. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to people without a good foundation, though.
Again, open request for Mandarin-language boards.
Gobear, sorry dude, but I do have to point out that the correct standardized pinyin romanization system would have beer as [b[]pi**jiu.
I have yet to find a better all in one handy sized dictionary that your choice of the Oxford University Press Concise English-Chinese, Chinese-English Dictionary. I’m sure I’ve bought a couple of dozen over the years and can see one even as I type this.
Jet, if your marriage can survive this. Beg your wife to really be tough on you for tones and pronunciation. Otherwise, it will end up that she is the only one that can understand you. Really, it is painful at the start, but you will end up with decent chinese if she really cracks the whip.
I have an American colleage who came in on Monday bitching about some colleagues. “I said ni zao (good morning) on the elevator and they didn’t understand me. Goddamn it, I know I’m saying it right.”
I have long since given up trying to help him with his Chinese because he usually doesn’t say it “correctly” and can’t bear to be corrected. [please note, I am fully aware that some Chinese just don’t process the fact that a white boy is speaking the language]
Dang, you’re right. Ah, well, that will teach me to post from memory without verifying my transliterations with an independent source.
If your hotheaded friend colleague would reflect for a moment, the fat that his audience didn’t understand him would indicate that he is not saying it right. C’mon, ni zao?And no ma to indicate he’s asking a question? The first lesson anyone should learn in acquiring a second language is humility because you will need it.
If you like jazz and related music, you might try www.jazzmore.com (my wife is a moderator there… 
)
I’m a pengke guy, but thanks.
Sometimes it really isn’t clear (especially in Cantonese) if it’s a problem with the learner’s pronunciation or the other person’s inability to process that the input is shakey Chinese, but I can’t stand those guys who blame other people for their total lack of ability. I knew a guy in Beijing who spoke Chinese with such a heavy surfer-pothead “accent” and total lack of regard for tones that I’d be surprised if anybody off campus ever understood a word he said, but he still blamed it on the people listening.
I didn’t forget ;). The URL to the site my wife frequents is:
http://www.cycnet.com/englishcorner/
I was a bit mistaken in that it’s actually a chat room rather than a message board. She tells me the site is mostly Chinese practicing English, but there are lots of people there chatting in Chinese, too. If you drop the “englishcorner” from the URL, it will take you to the main page which is entirely in Chinese.
She sort of does this already by laughing and telling me what it sounded like I really said.
Fuuuuck, don’t Chinese people speak Chinese anymore? I do not need another 3/4 English site. I need people who don’t speak a lick of English and don’t care to.
(not blaming you, thanks anyway)