Dual Channel (simple question)

Hi, noob here. My question is simple (yet difficult to answer through google): when you go dual channel, your total RAM is reduced to half? For example, I install two 1GB sticks (total = 2GB)in my PC, so when I run them at dual channel I get only get 1GB of available RAM with double the bandwidth, as opposed to 2GB at single channel?

Going dual channel doesnt reduce your total ram to half