What makes a family and a community in Chinese-speaking societies, and the skills to show it: family and community vocabulary, reading articles and charts for main ideas and details, speaking strategies for the Project Presentation and Q&A, and cultural products, practices and perspectives.
Unit 1 asks what makes a family, what family values and life look like, and how families and communities experience today's world. You build interpretive, interpersonal and presentational skills. The Fall 2026 exam centers on a course project (35% of the score): a Project Presentation and Project Q&A, plus an argumentative essay and 55 multiple-choice questions.
Core words for family members, extended family, neighbors and community, learned in context from authentic sources rather than isolated lists.
Preview, use cognates and context, find the main idea of the whole text (1.B.1), then the supporting details (1.A.1), and ask why the writer included a quote or example.
Learn the words for percentages, increases, decreases and trends, read the chart before the audio, and compare values over time.
Vary grammar and vocabulary, keep going with circumlocution and paraphrase, self-correct quickly, and express ideas, preferences and opinions with reasons and connectors.
Products are what a culture creates, practices are what people do, and perspectives are the values behind them. The exam rewards specific examples that connect perspectives to products and practices, and cultural comparisons in the Q&A.