Despite a common attitude that it is very difficult, and possibly unwise, to try to teach Mandarin Chinese to speakers of other dialects, there is a social and academic need for this kind of course, and it is possible to teach it successfully to most students. In the University of Alberta's program the likely candidates are the large group of foreign students from Hong Kong and Malaysia. The difficulties faced by the instructor in this program included: initial screening to get a homogeneous and motivated group; resources adequate for the course; bringing students to the same level; attitudes of cultural inferiority among some students; limited instructor language ability; and resistance to using pin-yin. Student problems included: unique linguistic problems because of complex dialects; lack of initial motivation; assumptions that the course would be easy; common linguistic problems such as tone distinction; and maintaining interest after the course. Such a course requires thorough teaching of the sound mechanism, phonological system, and syntactic differences. In addition, it requires that the instructor add interest, patience, and confidence for good results. (MSE)