>>11
Not to be pessimistic, but be warned that unless you have a native speaker to converse with, getting sentence patterns and tones down will be near impossible. Because of Mandarin's alleged lack of grammar, there are many ways to construct the same sentence, most of which make sense. But if you want to talk to a Chinese speaker and not end up saying things like "Do together you go want to restaurant?" you should try to find a native.
Also, if your tones aren't _almost perfect_, and the Chinese speaker you're speaking with doesn't also speak English, he or she will probably not understand you. Hell, I'm American, and my first year Chinese students utter toneless sentences that I can't even decipher.
So, in short, _get your tones down_, and then listen to native speakers to understand how sentences are usually formed.
All that said, it's tough, but extremely rewarding. Wish you best of luck! 好好学习吧！加油！