This is the most popular textbook used to teach Chinese in universities all over the United States. Designed for native English speakers to learn Chinese, the objective of this textbook, and its companion workbooks, is to develop the student's ability to communicate using Chinese through the study of language structure, language function, and related cultural knowledge along with the training of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. In every lesson, the following sections are present: Text, New Words, Notes, Conversation Practice, Reading Comprehension, Phonetics, Grammar, Characters and Cultural Notes. The book uses several fictional characters in different situations to make the Chinese learning experience more enjoyable.