Students will be able to have slightly more complex conversations about simple topics.  They will be able to describe themselves and their families, their daily routines, ask and give simple directions to neighboring places and they will practice short, simple conversations in a restaurant.  In order to do this, they will mostly use the present.  They will learn the importance of word order to express their ideas and other ways to ask questions in Chinese.  They will continue to learn about important aspects of Chinese culture (for example, Chinese festivals). By the end of the course, they will have an active vocabulary of 500 characters, applied to all of the language skills (speaking, listening, writing and reading).