Students are not expected to have any prior knowledge of Mandarin when they begin this course. Hansa's Level 1 Mandarin course covers the first eight units of Chinese for Beginners, by Yi Ren and Xiayuan Liang, which is included in the course fee. At this level, you will learn Pinyin, a writing system that uses the Roman letters you are already familiar with and shows you the correct intonation for each sound, and you will also begin to learn Chinese characters. You will learn to distinguish the four tones, structure sentences correctly, greet people and introduce yourself, express apologies and reasons, count, say the time, name months and days, and describe the weather. You will also master key verbs and idioms.