Business Chinese is a core textbook for international students majoring in economics, trade and business-related majors, and also a specialized Chinese textbook for international students to learn Chinese and understand the workplace culture. This textbook is closely related to the current development of Chinese and foreign trade and economic affairs, chooses mobile communications and artificial intelligence companies as the background, which are the young people nowadays most interested in, and links the working scenes and tasks of various departments of the company with the job rotation of executive trainees, in order to guide students to be familiar with the common expressions of business, to help them experience the identity, position, role relationship and language expressions of a working professional, and to effectively cultivate international students’ communication skills of business Chinese in the process of accomplishing tasks.

The teaching materials contain a main textbook, a preview book and an accompanying e-resource kit (available for free by scanning the QR code on the back cover or by visiting the official website of the Beijing Language and Culture University Press), with a total of 15 lessons in 5 units, covering such topics as welcoming businessmen, inspections and ordering, promotion and sales of new products, attending trade fairs, applying for jobs and joining the workforce, etc. The teaching resources are rich, and can be chosen by both the teachers and the students flexibly in the light of the actual situation in order to obtain the best learning effect.

Liu Ying is a professor, postgraduate supervisor, international doctoral co-supervisor, overseas Chinese teacher training expert and reviewer of CSSCI Linguistics Journals. Her main research focuses on the construction of “Chinese + Major” specialty courses and the international and regional studies of Chinese language education. Professor Liu has been engaged in international Chinese language education for more than 20 years, and has organized basic Chinese language courses such as intensive reading, speaking, listening and reading for foreign students, as well as business and trade Chinese language courses. She was awarded the Outstanding Instructor of the 4th National Graduate Student Chinese Teaching Micro-Lecture Contest, the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor of Shandong Province, and the Outstanding Research Achievement Award of Shandong Colleges and Universities. She has published several academic monographs and teaching materials, including Research on Children’s Early Vocabulary and Syntax Acquisition and MHK Strengthening Course (Listening) (co-author).

Cui Yifang is a full-time core teacher at the Confucius Institute of Shandong University. She mainly teaches comprehensive Chinese, listening and speaking, and business Chinese to international students engaged in language and preparatory studying in China. She had taught Chinese language overseas at the Confucius Institute of Chungnam National University (CNU) and the Confucius Institute of National University of Mongolia（NUM）, and has participated in the construction of many teaching and research programs.

I. This book is a specialized Chinese textbook for international students to learn business Chinese and understand workplace culture. This textbook aims to cultivate students’ ability to use Chinese in real business situations and solve practical problems, focuses on the needs of business people for workplace culture, and integrates business culture and workplace culture into the texts and exercises.

II. The selected content is workplace-oriented to ensure that the construction of resources comprehensively serves teaching and learning. Taking the experience of management trainee Meng Annuo when she first entered the workplace as a clue, this book organizes the contents in an orderly way, and guides students to understand the workplace in depth. The e-resource kit is equipped with a number of real business cases adapted from the field of trade and commerce, which helps learners to broaden their business horizons and improve their communication skills in business Chinese. Meanwhile, the textbook is equipped with teaching courseware carefully polished by the authors according to the actual teaching practice, which can be directly used by teachers to guide students to enter the workplace in an immersive way.

III. Following the principle of comprehensible input, the textbook emphasizes the use of real corpus and the creation of real scenarios. The interpretation and explanation of vocabulary and commonly used expressions employ less difficult words as much as possible, highlight typical scenes and usage, and match them with intuitive and vivid pictures to assist understanding. All of the texts are based on real scenarios in the field of economics and trade and are checked by business people, and each lesson is equipped with simulated real tasks, so that learners can grow in practice.

This book is suitable for students of business Chinese and economic and trade majors, intermediate and advanced Chinese language trainees and foreign business people (with Chinese language proficiency at HSK Level 4 or above and at the elementary level of the Grading Standard Level 3 or above, with Chinese vocabulary reaching more than 2,000 words and grammatical points more than 200 words).

The book consists of 15 lessons in 5 units, with 4-8 class hours/lessons recommended. It is suggested that each lesson be completed in 4 to 6 class hours when adopting flipped class model and 6 to 8 class hours when adopting traditional class model.