Learning Chinese

I spent over 5 months in China and really tried to learn Chinese language on my own but it was really hard. Of course I learned basics, few sentences in mandarin but still I was using my husband in order to communicate with people there. Now, after many months back I decided to learn it hard so by my next visit I will be able to talk to people and which is more important to understand them:) Please cross your fingers for that...
First of all I have started use my cd with dialogs to learn sentences and repeat them millions of time. Believe me it is the best way to learn accent and pronunciation. Although I know I will never get rid of my natural accent. Lets be honest:)
Second I use nciku.com website (thanks be to Internet) to learn 5 characters a day, well maybe less:) In China it is crucial to recognize some of the characters (i.e. toilet sign) otherwise you will not be able to find anything.
Also I have few sentence cards with me so I can memorize Chinese sentences more efficient.
Last but not least I always try to force my husband to speak to me in Chinese:) I think it is good to have native speaker around you when you try to learn foreign language.