Functioning in Chinese 1

This is an adult beginner level course book for Mandarin Chinese in a series of two. The target learners are those with little Chinese language knowledge at their tertiary studies, and the target learning environment is where the Chinese is not used as the official language. The focus of the book is on functional use of the language to improve learners' communicative ability instead of practising character writing. The grammar explanations are in simple plain language instead of linguistic jargon. The series is designed in conformance with the syllabus of Level 1 & 2, HSK (Hanoi Shuiping Kaoshi, Chinese Proficiency Test, a standardised test for non-native speakers) which is administered by the office of Chinese Language Council International, an agency of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. The series is approximately one year study in a tertiary curriculum.