The K12 Standard Chinese series is an international Chinese language grading textbook for non-native learners in grades K-12, aiming to enable learners to gradually improve their language proficiency in the context of enjoyable stories about modern life in China and traditional Chinese culture. The textbook is aligned with the Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education and the Framework of Reference for Chinese Culture and Society in International Chinese Language Education issued by the Centre for Language Education and Cooperation of the Ministry of Education of China. Following the principle of combining “structure-function-culture”, this set of textbooks is student-centred and language use-oriented, and combines the “5Cs” goals (Communication, Culture, Comparison, Community and Connection) put forward by the American Standards for Learning Foreign Languages in the 21st Century. Designed and written with the concepts of “Chinese characters as the foundation, Chinese culture as the body, interest as the basis and grading as the outline”, the textbook follows the laws of second language acquisition to set contents in a gradual and orderly manner, forming a closed-loop structure for language and culture teaching.

The K12 Standard Chinese series is written according to the new paradigm of “three levels and nine bands” proposed in the Grading Standards. Combined with the actual needs of K-12 learners, the grading standard is further refined into “five levels and nine bands”, forming a spiral structure that goes from basic, elementary, intermediate, advanced, and then top, with the nine levels corresponding to the Grading Standards one by one.

This book belongs to the Intermediate Level 3A of this set of teaching materials, which is in line with Level 3 of the Grading Standard, HSK Level 3 and YCT Level 3, and focuses on “Communication”, “Communities” and “Cultures” in the 5Cs. At this stage, learners are able to communicate completely and coherently on topics such as campus life, travelling and tourism, and complete communication tasks such as medical consultations and invitations, as well as grasp cultural contents such as places of interest, food culture and traditional arts, and make cultural comparisons.

The K12 Standard Chinese writing team, the editor, consists of a number of experts and front-line teachers from the Maple Leaf Education Systems (MLES). MLES currently operates 120 schools in 30 cities at home and abroad, including Shenzhen, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Dalian, Wuhan, Zhenjiang, Luoyang, Ordos, Pingdingshan, Yiwu, Jingzhou, Xi’an, Huai’an, Pinghu, Huzhou, Weifang, Yancheng, Haikou, Xiangyang, Luzhou, Jinan, and Hohhot of China, Vancouver, Kamloops, and Brockville of Canada, Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia, and Singapore. With more than 46,000 students and 7,000 Chinese and foreign teaching staff, MLES has formed a multi-level education system that includes schools for children of foreigners, kindergartens, primary schools, junior high schools and senior high schools. MLES has developed its own internationally accredited high school curriculum with Chinese characteristics, named MLWSC.

This volume is suitable for overseas teenagers, especially Chinese teenage learners, whose Chinese proficiency is at HSK Level 3, YCT Level 3 and Level 3 of the Grading Standard. Teachers are able to arrange teaching progress according to students’ learning level.