Many people have contemplated learning Chinese, but few ever give it a serious try. Why?   It¡¯s too difficult, most would say. First of all, it has thousands of characters instead of a set number of alphabets to remember. Secondly, the monosyllable words with the difficult tones can sound like gibberish.

Indeed, the Chinese written language is among the most difficult in the world. Therefore, we focus on the official spoken language - Mandarin with the aid of the Latin alphabet based Pinyin in this course. And the gibberish is less incomprehensible once you can break it down to familiar building blocks. This website aims to familiarize you with these building blocks and simplify the process of learning Chinese. In fact, it is so simple that we believe you can learn it in seven days.

How is this possible?   First of all, unlike most Chinese textbooks that start with a dialogue surrounding a scenario, lessons in Chinese In a week follow basic grammatical concepts familiar to an English speaker, such as parts of speech, statements, questions, modifiers and tenses. The emphasis is not on the memorization of words and sentences used in a given situation, but the fundamental structures of how Chinese sentences are put together. To minimize memorization, a list of only ? carefully selected words are taught to illustrate the main topics. We also make frequent comparisons between Chinese and English grammars to transition students from one language to the other.

Secondly, Chinese in a week uses templates to facilitate students' flexibility in applying learned material. Templates are used to teach phrases and sentences. The Chinese language uses phrases extensively. Proficiency in phrases can break a long chain of individual words into more manageable building blocks. Additional words are introduced with these templates. They are not required to proceed to the next lesson but they can expedite learning.

In sentences, templates are like math formulas into which you can put numerous values (words). In this way, infinite number of sentences can be composed based on a few commonly used templates. These templates take care of word order and grammar and show students examples of appropriate words that go with the templates. Students quickly gain confidence in putting newly learned words into familiar templates. Before long, this confidence will allow students to decode the language and expand their repertoire of templates on their own.

At the end of this course, you will know how to use Pinyin to pronounce Chinese words. You will know the basic parts of speech and grammar. You will learn how to compose statements and questions. Most importantly, you will have the confidence to engage in simple conversations.