Elementary Mandarin Chinese Workbook

Learn Chinese through clear, structured practice that actually builds usable skills.

Elementary Mandarin Chinese Workbook is a focused practice book for beginners learning Chinese. It develops core language skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing through graded, step-by-step exercises.

The workbook includes twenty-two lessons designed to build confidence from the ground up. It can be used on its own or alongside Elementary Mandarin Chinese Textbook, depending on how you choose to study.

Pinyin is used throughout, and free online audio recordings support all listening exercises. The progression is designed to take you from sound and script recognition into real reading and writing practice, step by step.

This compact volume features:

• Twenty-two carefully graded lessons
• Listening comprehension and translation practice
• Chinese character recognition and writing exercises
• Reading and writing tasks designed for beginners

Early lessons introduce Pinyin pronunciation, basic classroom expressions, and 48 fundamental Chinese characters. From Lesson 3 onward, each lesson is split into two parts, each combining listening, translation, character writing, and reading practice.

Cornelius C. Kubler is Stanfield Professor of Asian Studies at Williams College and a former Language Training Supervisor at the U.S. Department of State's Foreign Service Institute. He has taught Chinese for decades and is the author or coauthor of numerous books on Chinese language learning and linguistics.