Since being published in 2003 by the People’s Education Press, Learn Chinese with Me has been widely used by language students as well as by language instructors. In 2014, with the assistance of the Hanban (Confucius Institute Headquarters), People’s Education Press has produced the second edition of the Learn Chinese with Me series to keep up with the changing times.

1. Throughout the entire revision process, we have attempted to make the series more generalizable to students of Chinese all around the world, as well as more suitable for our target demographic of high school students. While the original edition was mainly directed at students in North America, this edition aims to suit students from many different world regions. Additionally, many teachers advised us that, while the first edition of Learn Chinese with Me was a high school series, the content was more suited to younger students. We have industriously worked to address this tendency in the current edition and make the content more suitable for high school students outside of China.

2. We keep “decreasing content” as our principle of revision. Specifically, to relieve the teaching pressure, we have compressed each volume by about 20%. To decrease the difficulty of the material and better suit the requirements of both the International Curriculum for Chinese Language Education and the HSK, we have adjusted text and added grammar sections. To make the material more interesting, we have designed new classroom activities and group practice assignments. We have also revised and supplemented existing sections, such as the explanation and teaching of pinyin, the teaching of Chinese characters and vocabulary, and the introduction of certain aspects of Chinese culture.

3. We have added a moderate amount of new material and kept our eyes on HSK tests. We have supplemented certain sections to help teachers prepare lessons. As many teachers mentioned that the first edition lacked adequate explanations of grammar patterns, the revised student edition of Learn Chinese with Me includes simple English introductions to new grammar patterns in order to help students understand them more easily. Additionally, the revised teacher’s book once more includes more detailed and developed explanations as well as class preparation materials. We have also increased the length of the content in the teacher’s book. Under the heading “Teaching Suggestions,” we have designed “Teaching Schedules”. In order to better match the format of the HSK, from the first volume’s second unit onward, we have added a practice set of HSK questions in every unit of the teacher’s book. These will help students become familiar with the HSK question format and allow them to review how far they have progressed.