Here's a list of excellent websites I highly recommend:
Use the online tool or buy your own copy of the desktop application
Book recommendations:
Learning Chinese Online: A site by Dr. Tianwei Xie from the Dept. of Asian and Asian American Studies, California State University at Long Beach. This site provides links for every aspect of the Chinese learning process (Schools, Pronunciation, Conversation, Grammar, etc.)
Mandarin Tools: This great site belongs to Erik Peterson, a computer programmer and linguist, currently working towards a Ph.D at the Language technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He has a collection of on-line and off-line tools designed to help those who wish to learn Chinese.
Adsotrans: This is probably one of my favorites and most visited websites. The site is managed by David Lancashire (who also works at Chinesepod). It offers an amazing online chinese annotator built on Artificial Intelligence. I use this tool to convert Chinese characters into numeric pinyin for the Pinyin Talker.
Chinese Tools: Here you can find an assortment of useful tools such as translators, tips to teach you how to write chinese characters, pinyin virtual keyboards, etc.
Sinosplice: This excellent site is ran by John Pasden and is meant, as he puts it, to provide "a peek into the life of an American attempting to integrate himself, somewhat, into Chinese society". He is the Academic Director at Chinese Pod. This site contains extremely good information about China's culture and its language.
Chinesepod: Their slogan is "Learn Chinese on Your Terms" and they really mean it!. They offer daily podcast lessons that range from absolute beginner to Advance. You can subscribe to them via itunes.
ZhongWen: If you want to deepen your understanding of the Chinese Language then you'll love this site. It contains the complete text of the book Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary, and graphically showns the close interconnections between over 4000 chinese characters.
