This course is designed for students with no prior background in Chinese language and culture. The objectives are to teach students to distinguish by ear, to write and to pronounce all the individual syllables in the phonetic system of modern standard Chinese (Mandarin) and to help students develop competencies in employing actively basic Chinese grammar, words, and expressions contained in Chinese Odyssey, Volumes 1 (lessons 1-10) and volume 2 (lessons 11-17). By the end of the course, students should be able to converse in simple sentences and write a total of 400 simple-form characters.