If you want to study Chinese well, choosing a good textbook is very important.

What is a good textbook'?. Interesting content, clear grammar and useful sentences are not only the students' wish, but also the writers' goal. This is what we have considered when writing this textbook.

The principles for New Concept Chinese (elementary) are: creative, practical, popular and interesting. This book has the following evident characteristics:

First, there are many pictures in this book to facilitate understanding. Before the use of characters, people communicated using pictures. Pictures are a worldwide language. Considering the difficulties of learning Chinese characters, we have included many pictures to supplement texts and exercises. When beginners are overwhelmed by the close and numerous different "squares", pictures can help them understand the words'meaning and increase their learning interest.
 

Second, grammar and usage are presented in a situational context. The first stage of language study is to accumulate a basic language foundation. Abstract knowledge might reduce the students' interest because they want to use what they learn. They will be more satisfied by using a word or phrase as soon as they learn it. In this book we have tried to choose natural, commonly used language, real life situations and useful communication topics that are relevant to the student's life. What they learn from this book will be useful to them in everyday activities.

Third, grammar points are naturally incorporated into the text. In this book there are 129 grammar points under level A in Outline of Grammar Levels, written by the HSK Department of the State Office Leading Group for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. The grammar points are introduced as natural sentences in the texts, rather than as grammatical formulae, and thus are not explained as grammatical formula to be memorized but as sentence models to be exercised and simulated. From every sentence students will learn new grammar, but through building language intuition rather than through memorizing formulaic rules. This builds a solid foundation for future language study by more closely simulating the intuitive manner in which one relates to one's own mother tongue.

Fourth, we have tried to make the language of the textbook interesting. Language study is often viewed as a boring and painful process, but in reality it could be much different. Our lives are full of interesting situations; we communicate using lively, interesting, and humorous language. Why can't we use such vivid languages in the texts? Many text writers think it is difficult to make primary level language study lively and interesting, but we believe we have a good take on this. We hope that students who choose this book can learn Chinese in a good mood and learn the language enjoyably.

Fifth, this book can be used as any kind of studying material. Because it merges speaking and listening into one organic whole, this book can be used to learn both oral and written Chinese. It has both systematic grammar points and lively and daily used conversations, presented step by step and gradually increasing in difficulty, making it a good textbook for short-term study, study abroad and self-study.

New Concept Chinese (elementary) has two volumes, with a total of 55 lessons. All texts are presented with an English translation. We carefully considered the vocabulary definitions and choose to introduce only the contextually appropriate meanings in order to avoid confusion. After every text, there are pattern drills for important or commonly used grammar. Exercises include listening, speaking, reading, writing and games to help students USE what they learned from the text.

There is no special pronunciation section in this book, but all pronunciation points are incorporated systematically into the exercises. Students will master these important pronunciation points by doing the exercises. New Concept Chinese (elementary) is a result of many people's cooperation. We wish to thank Mrs. Guo Li and Mrs. Shen Puna from Peking University Press for their warm support and instruction. We also wish to thank American friend Nava Geula who proofread the translated version.