Well first mandarin Chinese language class today, i must admit its unusual but interesting, went over some of the introductory conversation basics, i am and what country i come from, along with titles for Mr Mrs and so on.

Picked up the relevant book for study from Blackwell's ( colloquial Chinese by Kan Qian)

we covered the speech sounds and from first glance it seems that alot of the words have different meanings dependant on tone and whether its sustained.

Alot of reading for me i feel as the book seems to be a mainstay reference for this course.