4cr The course exposes beginners to the Mandarin Chinese phonetic system Pinyin, the four tones, and carefully selected Hanzi, the writing system. Listening, speaking, visual recognition, and writing skills are learned through active participation by the students in communicative and hands-on situations. By the end of the course, the students are able to initiate and, to some degree, sustain oral communication in Chinese while gaining recognition and writing ability of Hanzi via email, handwriting, and calligraphy. 30-50 Hanzi is the goal. Cultural elements associated with Hanzi are introduced. Prerequisite: None Fall