The 24 lessons in this book are meant to be used in 3 hours per week of class instruction over one academic year. Students will need another 2-3 hours of outside practice and review for every hour of class time, using the materials in the Elementary Mandarin Chinese Workbook.

"Learn to communicate easily in everyday situations -- Authentic dialogues with practical vocabulary and expressions -- Romanized Chinese (pinyin) and Chinese characters for easy access -- Native speaker recordings for listening and pronunciation practice"-- cover. "Free online audio & video" -- cover.

Orientation to the study of Chinese --Common classroom expressions -- Greetings -- Meeting people -- Asking about name and nationality -- Introductions -- "How many students in your class?" -- Buying things -- Numbers, dates, and time (I) -- Numbers, dates, and time (II) -- Review of lessons 1-12 -- Conversation with a six-year-old -- Chat at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial -- Biographical information -- More biographical information -- "How do I get to the Beijing Hotel?" -- Calling for a taxi to the airport -- Lost in Beijing -- By bus and street car to the Summer Palace -- A weather forecast -- Talking about the weather in your hometown -- Review of lessons 14-23 -- Chinese-English vocabulary.