This textbook has been specially compiled for short-term students of Chinese on the "absolute beginner" level. It is based on an outline compiled by the office of Chinese language council international and is intended to augment the short-term Chinese courses for foreign students on a college level.
    
The textbook contains 20 lessons and covers all fundamental knowledge of basic communication tools and grammar which a beginning student of Chinese should grasp. It should be able to satisfy especially those students who expect to improve their communication skills in Chinese within a relatively short period of time, in particular emphasizing the listening comprehension and the oral expression.
    
The textbook is based on a "task outline" principle and as such is divided into 20 lessons each emphasizing a different functional objective in basic communication. Each lesson starts with a heading highlighting the specific teaching task of the unit and is followed by a number of sentences and phrases necessary to master the task given in the heading. The second part contains conversations with typical communication tools for a particular situation. The third part simply explains the vocabulary. Exercises usually follow the basic sentences or are included after the vocabulary explanations.
    
The first twelve lessons are focused on practicing the use of basic sentences useful in everyday communication. The remaining eight lessons try to combine the basic communication skills with Chinese grammar and stress the vocabulary use and sentence patterns. The goal is to not only help students grasp the basic ability in social intercourse but also acquire a practical knowledge of basic Chinese grammar. The fourth part contains combined exercises in listening, speaking and reading. First, after listening or reading, the students should answer questions about the content, practice their listening and reading comprehension. Next, based on these answers and questions, they should retell the content of the lesson from different speakers' points of view.
    
This textbook emphasizes the oral expression skills since the primary purpose of learning is its practical application. Speaking according to a picture is a way to put to practice the functional knowledge already learned. "Fill in the blanks" exercises as well as answering the teacher's questions according to the actual circumstances plus "everybody speaks" exercise essentially allow students to apply whatever theory they have learned in every unit. If the students complete the exercise and grasp the basics, they should be absolutely capable of elementary social intercourse in Chinese. This way this textbook's objective would be also met.
    
The content takes the experience of two students coming to China to join a short-term class as a main thread and is organized according to their everyday needs paying special attention to the order of priority. At the same time, it also particularly highlights the colorful and vivid language of the youth. Every unit is followed by a brief note highlighting some important aspects of Chinese culture and as such will certainly prove very beneficial to all the students coming to China for the first time. Language and culture are closely connected. This part of the textbook will not only help students get used to life in China, but also it will certainly make it easier for them to more deeply understand Chinese culture and Chinese language.
    
The compiler of this textbook is a professor with a rich experience in teaching Chinese as a foreign language to students of different nationalities. The writer, based on her own teaching experience, particularly singles out and points to the common pronunciation mistakes students from various countries have a tendency to make, at the same time providing useful hints how to overcome these pronunciation difficulties. Similarly with the grammar part. Thus the students and teachers using this textbook will be able to solve the above-mentioned problems directly saving a lot of time and effort.
    
This textbook contains 20 lessons and can be divided in 100 class units. If you come to China for only a short period of time to travel, for example one month of summer vacation, it is the most suitable textbook for you. You can study for five days every week, Monday through Friday, while during the weekend you may go traveling and test your newly acquired skills. And after you finish the coursework, you can still use these language skills in real life situations similar to those in the textbook. At that time the suitable phrases will just spontaneously come out of your mouth.