Forrest Andrew Jones Insights

Learning Mandarin The SenLin Way Workbook 1

The pen and paper companion to the SenLin method, covering the first level of the HSK.

Front cover of the workbook: two large green Chinese characters above the title Learning Mandarin The SenLin Way, Workbook 1, HSK 1, with three small characters for tree, woods and forest and the author name Forrest Andrew Jones.
Full title as published

Learning Mandarin The SenLin Way Workbook 1: HSK 1 Chinese Characters, Words and Sentences with Stroke Order, Movie-Scene Mnemonics, Daily Writing Practice and Answer Key

  • AuthorForrest Andrew Jones
  • ISBN 139798176198591
  • FormatHardcover, 145 pages, also available in paperback
  • LevelHSK 1, the first 180 characters
  • Published21 September 2026

What the workbook covers

Most beginners start with vocabulary and try to fix their pronunciation later. This workbook runs the other way. The first twelve days are nothing but sound: the four tones and the neutral tone, every initial and final of pinyin, all twenty tone pairs, and the tone changes of real speech. Only then does the learner pick up a pencil and write the first character, 木, a tree.

From there it teaches three characters a day. Each one is taught as a small movie scene: an actor for the sound it starts with, a set for the sound it ends with, a room for its tone, and props for the parts it is built from. The learner casts the actors, which is why the scenes stick.

Part 1, Pronunciation Mastery, covers tones, 26 actors and 35 sets, tone pairs, stroke order, and a cast sheet to fill in. Part 2 runs twelve five day units covering 180 characters, 115 words, 103 sentences and 18 grammar patterns. Every day has a full page: a numbered stroke order map, models to trace, a row written from memory, a line for the learner's own scene, and a recall ladder that brings back the characters from yesterday, three days ago and a week ago.

Unit practice is built only from characters already learned: question words, 吗 and 呢, 不 or 没, measure words, numbers, dates and clock time. Pinyin is printed above every reading passage, as in the HSK 1 exam. There are three checkpoints, an HSK 1 readiness check, a capstone called Your First Page of Chinese, and a complete answer key, plus a pinyin index, the 150 word HSK 1 checklist, the prop room, a 72 day forest tracker and a certificate.

Workbook 1 follows days 1 to 72 of the Mandarin The SenLin Way app: ten minutes on the screen for the ear and the mouth, ten minutes on the page for the hand. A code on every day page opens the matching lesson. No Chinese is assumed.

View the workbook on Amazon

Read the method explained: Learning Mandarin the SenLin way

Forrest Andrew Jones seated in a brown leather armchair in front of a bookshelf, wearing a beige jacket, white shirt and jeans, with half rim glasses.
About the author

Forrest Andrew Jones wrote the workbook and built the SenLin method for himself as an adult learner of Mandarin. He works in capital formation and corporate finance, and he writes fiction and poetry under the SenLin name. More about the author