As a confidant of ours confessed over beer one evening, "you'd think that now I'm running my own business in Beijing, people would assume I could eat." And yet, strange as it may seem, speaking mandarin is considered one of the easier skills for foreigners to master. The real parlor trick for impressing your Chinese friends and colleagues is simple tool manipulation, or the ability to put food in your mouth with sticks.

Learning Chinese? Our elementary series starts introducing basic grammar while focusing on very high-frequency and colloquial mandarin, the sort of language you'll use everyday. This is a good level for you if you've already learned the basics, but are still struggling to really internalize the language. If you're completely new to Chinese and are looking to start from scratch, we recommend checking out our lesson series for absolute beginners. You'll be back up at this level before you know it.