Course Description

This level is for complete beginners and for learners who have picked up a few words but never studied Mandarin systematically. We start with the sound system: the four tones and the neutral tone, the initials and finals of pinyin, and the pronunciation points that speakers of your language tend to find hardest. From the first lessons, you put these sounds to use in short exchanges, greeting people, introducing yourself and asking simple questions. As the course progresses, you learn to talk about everyday topics such as family, work, food, shopping, transport and time. Alongside this, you build the core grammar of Mandarin: basic word order, measure words, questions with 吗 and 呢, the particle 了, and ways of expressing time, place and quantity. Characters are introduced gradually, in simplified or traditional script, beginning with the most frequent ones and the components that recur across many others. You also choose your accent, standard Putonghua or southern and Taiwanese Mandarin, which shapes your pronunciation and some of the vocabulary you learn. By the end of this level, you will be able to introduce yourself and talk about your daily life, handle routine situations such as ordering food, asking for directions and making arrangements, and follow slow, clear speech on familiar topics. You will read pinyin confidently and recognize around [300] characters. The level corresponds roughly to CEFR A1–A2 and prepares you for the first stages of the HSK or TOCFL.