Chinese 101 is the first course in the basic Chinese language course series designed to introduce the language and cultures of the Mandarin Chinese speaking peoples. No prior knowledge of Mandarin Chinese is expected. This course aims at providing you with a basic knowledge of the Chinese romanization system (pinyin), pronunciation, tones, the writing system, vocabulary, and sentence structure. As language loses much of its meaning without the cultural context, language learners should learn how to “perform" appropriately in a given cultural context, with the four communication skills—listening, speaking, writing and reading—as their tools. After completing this course you are expected: 1. To pronounce all Chinese sounds in Pinyin (Chinese Romanization pronunciation system) and four tones 2. To be introduced to the Chinese writing system. Students will be able to identify and write approximately 100 symbols (radicals and characters) in simplified forms 3. To understand the basic structure and word order of Chinese sentences 4. To use the basic classroom & survival Chinese expressions 5. Since the overarching theme of this very first Chinese course is “Getting to know you", students will be gaining the ability to provide personal information and obtain them from others through the conversations on the following topics:  Greeting people both in formal and informal ways at different times of the day  Introduce yourself, your family and your friends by providing names, nationalities, occupations and phone numbers  Briefly describe your field of study in college  Talk about where you and your family work and live 6.