#hsk level 2 test online

[meiyuchinese01]

HSK Level 1 & 2 Test

Are you considering learning Mandarin Chinese? Whether you’re planning a trip to China, interested in the culture, or aiming to boost your career prospects, mastering the basics of Chinese can be incredibly beneficial. The HSK Level 1 & 2 test is an excellent starting point for beginners. In this blog post, we’ll explore the significance of the HSK Level 1 & 2 test, its components, and valuable tips for excelling in these entry-level language assessments.

What is HSK? The HSK is a standardized test that evaluates the Chinese language proficiency of non-native speakers. Developed by the Hanban (Confucius Institute Headquarters), the test is widely recognized worldwide and serves as a benchmark for language learners. The HSK is divided into six levels, with Level 1 and Level 2 being the beginner stages.

HSK Level 1 The HSK Level 1 test targets learners who have mastered the most fundamental elements of the Chinese language. It assesses their ability to comprehend and use simple phrases and expressions in everyday situations. At this HSK Level 1, learners are expected to grasp about 150 commonly used words.

HSK Level 2 The HSK Level 2 test is the next step for learners who wish to expand their Chinese language skills. This HSK Level 2 evaluates learners’ capacity to communicate in uncomplicated, routine tasks requiring a basic and direct exchange of information. It covers an extended vocabulary of approximately 300 words.

Components of HSK Level 1 & 2 Test Listening Comprehension: The listening section evaluates your ability to understand and respond to basic spoken Chinese. You will listen to simple conversations and answer questions based on the information provided.

Reading Comprehension: In this section, you will read short texts and answer questions related to the content. The texts are designed to assess your understanding of basic vocabulary and sentence structures.

Writing (HSK Level 2 Only): Level 2 includes a writing component where you will be required to write simple sentences or short passages. This assesses your ability to express ideas in written form.

Tips for Acing HSK Level 1 & 2 Master Basic Vocabulary: Focus on learning and memorizing the vocabulary specific to each level. Flashcards and spaced repetition techniques can be helpful in retaining new words.

Practice Listening Regularly: Immerse yourself in Chinese audio materials like podcasts, videos, and language learning apps. Regular listening practice will improve your understanding of spoken Chinese.

Read Simple Texts: Read beginner-level Chinese texts to familiarize yourself with sentence structures and common phrases. Step by step challenge yourself with more complex materials as you progress.

Engage in Conversations: Practice speaking with native speakers or language partners. Engaging in conversations will boost your confidence and help you apply what you’ve learned in real-life scenarios.

Mock Tests: Take mock HSK Level 1 & 2 tests to simulate the actual exam experience. Mock tests will highlight areas that require improvement and boost your test-taking confidence.

Conclusion Embarking on your journey to learn Mandarin Chinese through the HSK Level 1 & 2 test is an exciting and rewarding endeavor. These entry-level tests provide a solid foundation for your language learning journey, allowing you to communicate effectively in basic everyday situations. Remember to stay consistent in your practice and be patient with yourself as you progress.

With dedication and determination, you will soon find yourself confidently navigating the Chinese language. Best of luck on your HSK Level 1 & 2 test, and may your language-learning adventure be both enjoyable and successful!

[sukinapan]

hi! where did you sign up for the language proficiency test? did you also learn using their materials or from something else? thank you and congrats! ❤

thanks ฅ՞•ﻌ•՞ฅ

the test was HSK level 2 and i signed up at a confucious institute in my city. i'd taken lessons there before the pandemic and had since been practicing on and off with apps and whatnot. i still have a textbook from the institute but i've been too lazy to review it again.

since the test had a limited and very specific set of contents i just studied with whatever "hsk 2" materials i found online, mainly youtube videos ദ്ദി・ᴗ・)✧

i have lowkey insane rote memorization skills, but ofc that won't take you too far so i signed up for a conversation practice course in september now ^^ i'm really looking forward to it~

[cheesey-rice]

Ok cool! Yeah I feel like my self study has been very eclectic so I've run into a lot of resources that help with like different areas of the language learning, here's a few:

Chinese Pod (Spotify or YouTube)

For listening/pronounciation. This is a podcast that has different levels of familiarity. At the beginner-intermediate levels they have little conversation dialogues that the hosts explain and repeat. The dialogues are based around the HSK standards of fluency tho, but the thing I like to do is just click on the topics that I find personally interesting (I just played 篮球 and 麻将 on repeat this summer because I like basketball and mahjong so now I know how to talk about them.)

Yellowbridge

FOR EVERYTHING. This is my favorite online Chinese dictionary, you can use it to look up words based on pinyin characters or English and it gives you options to see in a sentence, understand the etymology, and practice the stroke order of characters. On their main website they also have learning materials based around different standardized tests of fluency people might be studying for.

Du Chinese

For reading. This is an app that's great for beginning to read and understand Chinese characters. They have some abridged classics and original stories that can make you feel more competent with understanding of characters and grammar. It lets you click on characters for pinyin and meanings and I think it's more fun to read something than Duo Lingo's weird and stressful leaderboard system. Only problem is many of the stories are behind a like subscription paywall.

Readibu

Also reading. This app lets you access contemporary Chinese webnovels that have been translated and rated into reading levels, but it also lets you put in the urls of your own Chinese language web pages and converts them into its reader mode. It shows you the pinyin for each character and can translate individual words. I've used this app to read a 天官赐福 raw I found on enjing before and really enjoyed it. It makes you pay for like sentence long translations but I don't think any of the paid features are necessary.

Perapera Chinese Popup Dictionary

Reading for computer. This is a browser extension on Firefox and chrome which you can turn on to identify Chinese words and phrases you don't know. Very helpful for identifying idioms and the definitions include measure words for nouns and multiple possible meanings. I like to use this to read baidu and chinese wikipedia pages about things I was already looking up anyway.

Kangxi Radical dictionary

Writing/reading/speaking. I'm interested in what book about radicals you have? I also think that learning radicals is one of the most important parts of starting to understand Chinese because I think that the way most 汉语 curriculum works for English speakers is that they just throw you into full character=meaning but I think it's easier to memorize and understand words when you understand a bit of the etymology, bc English speakers aren't taught that Chinese is picto-phonetic, not just pictographic. Often times there are Chinese words that will contain phonetic indicators or remnants of phonetic indicators or ... I guess maybe this is more helpful if you're learning traditional character than simplified though. Anyway when you learn how to write the radicals it suddenly becomes much easier to copy new words down at a glance and understand the meaning behind them. I'm not much of an expert though these are what I use currently to practice writing radicals: 康熙部首's Wikipedia page, this YouTube video of someone writing all of them with stroke order. Literally sometimes I just turn the video on 2 times speed and just write like however many I have the patience for down in a notebook and double check the wikipedia for meanings.

(Side not about personal experience, feel free to disregard: In general I also think that my learning got faster when I realized that the best way to absorb language was just to do things I enjoyed and wanted to do anyway but just do them in Chinese. Fluency is very relative, I don't think there's much point in learning how to say things you wouldn't ever have to say in real life first... It's best to pick a small goal like I want to read this book or watch this drama or be able to explain this about myself and my interests and accomplish those one at a time. Like little assignments lmao. Improving speaking is very much like, make a little speech and then practice saying that speech until you sound good (Google translate text to voice for putonghua pronunciation isn't bad actually if that's something you want to do). Honestly with speaking I feel like you memorize the sounds first and then understand the meaning afterward. It also helps to think about how you learned english when you were a kid you know like you copied a bunch of writing assignments and wrote little reports, it's like you're doing that but with chinese. For a long time the way chinese writing has been taught has been through copying characters from classics so I feel like to just copy writing/rehearsing what you see in the media you want to interact with is very good.)

oh this is such bullshit

[neuxue]

hello! sorry to bother you and feel free to ignore this if you don’t have time or something, but do you have study resources or recs for learning to read mandarin? just memorizing characters/vocab, not grammar. I’m tired of not being able to read my own native language lmao

I can definitely share some things that I've found helpful! Obviously it'll vary from person to person depending on learning style, language exposure, etc, but specifically for learning to read, some things that have been helpful for me are:

1. Pleco

(an amazing dictionary app available free on android and ios; wish I had had this ten years ago).

It's great in general as a way to look up unfamiliar characters (via several input methods, including drawing on the screen), but also has a flashcards section. You can store any word you look up as a flashcard, categorise your flashcards, and test yourself on them. It's not the most sophisticated flashcard system out there, but the fact that it's integrated into the dictionary so that you can add words as you come across them with very little friction is awesome.

And also, it includes...

2. The HSK character lists

You can import these as flashcards in Pleco (I can't remember exactly where to find them but it's either under 'import/export' in the menu or it's an option at installation). Or you can find them online (search 'HSK Vocabulary List'). These are divided into the 6 levels based on difficulty and frequency of use (I think?) so you could work through them progressively (or just wake up and choose chaos).

In total, levels 1-6 comprise 5000 of the most commonly used characters (150 at each of HSK 1 and 2, 300 at 3, 600 at 4, 1300 at 5, and 2500 at 6)..

You could also print them out from online, or probably there are books if you're a physical books kind of person. Or I guess if you have extraordinary visual memory you could just read the list on the webpage a few times. Or any other approach that works for you in terms of text- or visual-memorisation (sticking post-its on everyday objects or on walls you look at frequently, making the list your homepage, etc).

Anyway, this is more or less where I started when I decided to learn how to read - just picking a group and going through them as flashcards in Pleco until I could get most of them right, then moving on to another group, then going back to earlier ones to make sure I didn't start forgetting them, until I felt like I at least had a decent visual-recognition basis. And especially if you already know the language in spoken form, you can pretty quickly go on to...

3. Find something you want to read

So I tend to jump straight to trying to read 'actual books' in acquired languages probably before it would be generally advisable to do so, but it's so much more motivating (and gratifying) than just memorising vocabulary. Obviously some of that is unavoidable, but having something you're invested in for the story (or whatever form of content) is super super helpful, in my experience, in staving off frustration.

There's definitely still an element of suspending frustration here - depending on how far you go with written vocabulary and memorisation before jumping in to a book or any other non-learner-oriented text, you're just not going to get everything. And part of it is just... accepting that.

This is where something like Pleco's dictionary-to-flashcards integration is useful, so that you can build your written/recognisable vocabulary by adding unfamiliar characters as you come across them.

I would say try to find a balance between looking up every single word and looking up nothing at all - stopping constantly to look up unfamiliar words can break up the flow and also just takes forever, whereas pushing through even if you don't understand everything can be helpful in just building comfort with reading and the ability to work things out from context or repeated patterns of use without leaning on a dictionary for everything. Again, knowing the language in spoken form is helpful here in that it's often much easier to fill in that context and map the 'unknown' characters to their semantic meanings.

This is one where I think the exact balance depends very much on how you learn best and where your tolerance for specific kinds of frustration lies. Mostly though, I just find that I'm less likely to give up on reading, even when it's hard, if I'm reading something that I want to read anyway, rather than just for the purpose of learning. It's about the Motivation.

4. Read something familiar

Knowing the general context or story beforehand can also be helpful, so that even if words/characters are unfamiliar, or there are sections you can't completely understand, you won't feel completely lost, and you might be able to work things out through context.

This is something I've done with... I think every language I've learned. It's a good way to ease into reading in a way that feels less totally overwhelming (and is a good excuse to reread some old favourites!)

5. Read something side-by-side with English (or whatever language you’re most comfortable reading in)

This might be less helpful to specifically picking up literacy in a language you already speak, but is something that, like reading a familiar story, I think can still be helpful.

Some other options for shoerter-form content are ctext. org if you're interested in premodern texts, or I think there are some sites that have side-by-side poetry translations?

Also...

6. News articles

The New York Times has a Chinese section, and for a lot of the articles there's a dual-language mode, so you can read a paragraph at a time side-by-side with English. Other newspapers may have something similar, but this is the one I'm most familiar with.

I find newspapers in general really helpful to pick up a range of vocabulary on a lot of different subjects, and especially with the two-language mode it's a relatively low-effort-high-reward way to do that if you're more comfortable reading in English.

Also news articles are short, which makes them a good way to build a habit of practising reading on a regular basis without being super daunting (at least, in my experience!)

7. A high tolerance for frustration

One thing I've noticed about reading especially, across all languages I've tried to do so in, is that the learning curve is... absolutely excruciating to start. I mean, I'm just going from personal experience here, but for the first... while... it just feels like you're getting nowhere, like you can't understand anything, like no matter how many words you learn there are infinitely more you don't recognise, like you're stopping every two sentences to look things up...

And then it gets easier. Like, maybe not quite overnight, and no doubt it's different for everyone, but it really does feel like there's a point at which it goes from 'I am never going to be able to read anything in this language' to 'wow okay I got most of that chapter!' really fast? I don't know how to predict that point, or what exactly leads to it other than just... time and exposure, but it is 100% worth it when it comes.

-

Anyway, this is definitely not an exhaustive list, but hopefully some of it is helpful. Best of luck!

[rigelmejo]

I don’t know if this extensive reading has helped but I FEEL like it has helped lol. When I started 小王子 how long was it taking a chapter? Just under 5 minutes per page right?

Well I know I got faster than that. Today my Internet was down so while waiting for things to restart and load and stuff I read like 5 chapters of the book. I read them out loud (just a handful of words I didn’t know how to say out loud). I was reading at slow but steady speaking speed so that’s still faster than 5 minutes a page. Ok I just timed myself to test it and I am taking 2 minutes to read a page, and I would guess 3 minutes if I slowed down to consider a bit more on the sayings/less familiar hanzi. That’s better then the 4.5-5 minutes I started at! So I must’ve picked up some words from this book. So I would say... yes a little extensive reading seems to be helping reading speed. Also! I have 16 pages to go! This story is so short. It is sweet and odd and so human though maybe that is why it’s remained loved like Alice in wonderland. (Fun fact I also read 2 chapters of Alice in wonderland in French this week and it is just as bizarre to me as when I watched the movie as a kid, But I do think in book form if I were 6-9 I would’ve related more since Alice’s POV in the story is pretty relatable... and when I was a kid and watched the movie I just did Not relate aha).

Anyway from 4.5 minutes to 2-3 is great!

What I did with graded readers/extensive reading this month, that I am hoping is why this helped:

Read graded reader (butterfly lovers, Pleco, 500 unique characters) - not hard but very satisfying to finish it and read it quickly when it used to take me 40 minutes to read a few Pleco pages of it). So that was a few thousand words comprehensible extensive reading.

Read another graded reader, chinese short stories. While I think it’s good as a study companion, a lot of very specific words which I tripped on (antique coins, being scammed). Which was fine I just think it was not the funnest reading material? It was mostly graded reader though I had to look up a couple handfuls of words.

Read a little of my 500 character Sinolingua reader (2 stories). Also read through the back of it which has all the words in the book, and the HSK 3 words included in the book - I knew all those words but it was a nice refresher. Mostly it was just nice to see how much easier these stories were to read compared to when I first got the book. (I would recommend these books as readers if you want something for adults and in short segments, the short stories are simplified prose from established authors, and the quality of storytelling can therefore be felt a bit. They feel more meaningful as short stories and therefore enjoyable if a bit basic (since they’ve been simplified). You can tell though compared to the Chinese Short Stories book above, which was probably written by a teacher/language textbook maker and not necessarily a literary writer.

Read mandarin companion journey to the center of the earth. 450 unique characters. Another easy read that felt really nice, compared to when I first read a mandarin companion book.

Started reading 小王子 on paper, so extensive reading with little word look up (I’ve looked up less than 10 words so far when reading on paper - notable words I looked up because it frustrated me I didn’t know them: 悲伤，惊奇，惊讶，匆匆，逐渐，观察，测试 a lot of these because I know I’ve seen these Hanzi before I just never remember specifically like 惊讶 惊奇 what the difference is or guan pronunciation 观察 or 测 I tend to forget when it’s not in 测试). I started reading it because it’s supposed to have around 2000 unique words (so not too many), and be pretty easy reading level (so a bit easier than 活着 which is the novel Chinese learners often get recommended). Basically, this was the extensive reading book choice step up from graded readers - it’s got a bit over 1000 unique hanzi, not an overwhelming amount of unique words, but it is not a graded reader so if it goes well I could jump to other stuff of similar or slightly less “ease” while still having it feel this “easy” to read (and hopefully take days to read instead of months).

Started reading 笑猫日记之会唱歌的猫 in Pleco, so clicking words I didn’t know (though this one only had a word or two a page unknown). I saw it recommended on a Chinese learners form as easy reading material after graded readers, and I agree! It’s very easy to read! I could understand it without clicking words but it is nice to understand fully since it’s convenient, and look up the pronunciation etc. I read 8 chapters so far. I also listened to a few chapters after reading, but idk if it helped at all.

15 ish chapters into 小王子 I found it online and reread 4 chapters with a click dictionary for unknown words. It was nice just clarifying the word pronunciations and fuzzy bits, also the online translation was different so seeing the difference on how they decided to word it (mostly just seeing synonyms used instead or different sayings for certain parts). I listened to a couple chapters audio afterwards, idk if it helped.

Unrelated, but I did listen read to 5 chapters of 默读 mainly following the Chinese text so, idk if that would’ve helped my overall reading at all (I want to say no but I did notice in general much more general gist comprehension of lines in MoDu then last time I read a couple months ago - although listening to the audio and being able to glance at the English for unknown words of course also makes things much more comprehensible that’s why listen reading method is the structure it is ahh).

Listened to some audio for 小王子 during work because I happened to find it, for chapters 1-4. Just playing in the background. I looked at the text while listening to one to match pronunciation to some words, since the chapter was like 5 minutes long in listening. Again interesting to see their word choice since It was yet another translation (I think I like my print books translation best).

Back to reading print 小王子 today and I think the audio beforehand did help me with being able to pronounce more of what I’m reading. Read like 4 chapters in one short break, another 3 chapters just now. While I don’t know how well the reading speed will translate to reading harder stuff like guardian (which was oddly also taking me 5 minutes a page? Why is that my default speed?), my reading speed doing extensive reading on “stuff mostly easy” to me has increased noticeably. (Fun fact when I read English technical text like psychology and physics books and educational etc I think my reading speed is it’s like 10-20 pages an hour... I do not read non fiction very fast).

So anyway, my goal with extensive reading easy material this month was to see if I could push UP what my starting base level “easy” material is.

What I used to do is practice with an “easier text” (which was still pretty hard for me tbh) and then once it got bearable (took 30-40 minutes to read instead of an hour), I’d switch to a harder material that took me 1-1.5 hours to read. Then when I’d burn out, I’d go back to that “easier” text until it got easier at 20-30 minutes to read. Then I might pick a harder base reading text (usually what used to be the hard one that would now take 30-40 minutes to read), and find something even harder. Lately that has been 寒舍 as my “easier” text, taking 20-30 minutes a full chapter (2 mini chapters), and 天涯客 as my harder text at 30-40ish minutes a chapter. And yes, at this point I could pick something harder but they’re both hard enough I was just sticking to them. You might notice none of these were actually easy for me though, my actual base easy materials were still graded readers, and manhua. So I want to push that upward until there’s some “easier” material below 寒舍 that I can be built up to and read easily Without a dictionary aid. So I can have a solid base that’s reliable. Hanshe is an “easier” practice material but it’s not necessarily something I can read extensively with ease. But if I keep pushing up the difficulty of what I can extensively read, bit by bit, I will eventually Get it to hanshe (or a little below it realistically but still firmly in regular-webnovel-exist at the reading level). I will not get faster at reading these hard things unless my base level of reading is both higher and already a reasonable speed. (I’m guessing anyway??).

Well happy to say this plan is working. I guess the advice articles I read were right somewhat. I knew graded readers could drag you from 0 beginner to some reading ability, since It’s what I originally did with Chinese (and even French sort of). But I was very quick about it because I’m impatient and easily bored by too-easy things apparently lol. I read 1 mandarin companion graded reader (the 300 word Sherlock Holmes one), a couple chapters of 2 other graded readers, then started on a random webnovel (the bl 他们的故事 which somehow thankfully is on the easier end for novels) and looked a lot of words up to get through. But I did not think to try to “match my reading level and increase gradually” in regular novels, even tho if it works for graded readers it probably works for regular stuff!

And in school in our native languages, that’s why our elementary schools had libraries, and we read books for our age group and the chapter books we read were much easier than what we read as teens or what adults read! I remember bunnicula and cat wings those were not hard but they were chapter stories. Then I remember Dracula and hg wells and mark Twain in high school and how they felt a bit Hard despite me being one of those kids rated at college reading level in 3rd grade. Now as a kid? I had the same tendencies I do now, so I’m not surprised I always jump in the deep end and Try to read hard stuff (and it must help since it’s part of why I got good at reading my native language, and definitely has helped my chinese and french). I would be like 7 and pick up a mitchner novel of My dad’s (is that the author of stuff like Alaska etc?) and I’d read a couple pages and feel drained trying to follow it and give up. Or the huge The Witching Hour by Anne Rice, or HG Wells History of the world, or the biography of benjamin Franklin, I never finished any of these or had any idea what they were about I just got curious and opened up a couple pages every now and then. Yet somehow that must’ve been part of why my reading level so early on was considered “good”? I’m guessing.

But I wasn’t actually good at reading in the sense of doing it often or fast until my dad started reading to me at like age 8-9 I think it was Harry Potter which at the time worked out since the books got harder each time, and also my dad reads out loud slow just like he tutors slow lol so eventually I read myself so he’d stop boring me (I love him and loved the bonding time I’m sure but truly i just apparently always liked jumping in the deep end). Eventually his strategy Im guessing to get me to read slightly harder stuff each time worked, because by books 4-5 I read each in 2 days. He was so impressed because before that I couldn’t read long books and not fast, and that’s when he thought I got good at reading. Looking back lol it’s actually so funny? How much work he had to do to get me to read and how what ended up working I still sort of do now. He started me on Hop on Pop as a kid as my first book cause One Fish Two Fish bored me and I thought jumping on a dad was funny, and he did that just to do something to get me to pick up a book lol. Then he got me that digital book toy they had back then where you had a real book but it was in a digital holder and if you clicked words with the pen it read them out loud. Literally how I learn Chinese now... he really got me digital equivalent to graded readers back then ToT. And just like as a kid I still pick up stuff way beyond my level and just read a couple pages at random. It’s just. Kind of funny to me how much I didn’t really change that much after all ToT

BACK ON THE TOPIC OF APRIL PROGRESS lol ok. I listened to Guardian ep 1 today just in the background so no subs etc and I was Floored by how much I completely understood. I’ve been listening to SpoonFed chinese again (15 audios listened to this month), but I’m floored if it made a difference?! Since I was mostly listening in the background not focusing and missing some stuff. Idk if it made a difference, or listening reading method just that 1.5 hours I did this month or what. Or if my listening skills have been this decent I just don’t test them since I usually watch shows with hard Chinese subs (and read the subs), or watch shows with English subs. So like. Anyway mejo back in what was it august 2019 when I started studying? Would be so happy. Back when I started watching guardian and only knew ni hao and xie xie and zai jian.

Also I can’t even remember now if I did extensive reading guardian (after reading the English translation), this month too or just last month. But I’m sure that helped and I should test general reading sometime of a priest novel. Like.. literally what kicked off the “I should extensive read more” this month is me Desperately wanting to kick up my reading speed after the horrific 25 page guardian chapter I read that took like 1.5 hours.

[zakuwatorka]

爱丽丝漫游奇境记 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 🇨🇳 | Book review

Short introduction to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: 

📖  level: around HSK 4/5 📖  authors: Lewis Carroll, rewritten by: Jennifer Basset, translate: 夏青 📖  Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press 📖  64 pages 📖  Adventures of Alice in Wonderland  📖  Book is designed for Chinese students to learn English, but since I got this book on my shelf (totally accidentally) I’ve decided to give it a try (do NOT regret!)  📖  bilingual book: English (left page) Chinese (right page) 📖  big advantage of the book: huge margines that you can write your notes/translations 📖  it has some of explanations of words (in Chinese)  📖  exercises at the end of the book are for English learners (so if English is not your native language, you can also test yourself!) 

Grade: 3.5/5 (the grade is lower just because it’s not a true Graded Reader for Chinese learners; even tho - I enjoyed the book pretty much!) 

📷  My Instagram 📷

~~~~~~~~~~~~ Check also ~~~~~~~~~~~~

🌸  Previous book review:

Welcome to Beijing (HSK 1-2)

Chinese Legends (HSK 3)

🌸  Reading in Chinese (online)

谢谢拜拜！

[black-water-simping-ships]

chinese learning apps

over the past months i’ve tried out a few and i gotta procrastinate something so here we go. * means this is available in my native language german, which means that it might be available in yours too! and yeah i don’t pay for subscriptions or anything not because i don’t want to pay money in general but because i prefer to use my money for irl lessons because i get more out of being able to access resources that have...people

*pleco: everybody loves pleco, everybody recommends pleco, i fucking hate it don’t but to each their own. pros: a lot of free addons including non-english modules and other dictionaries, canto and zhuyin can be displayed in addition to pinyin, flashcard system. cons: anal about handwriting input, free voice is dependent on an internet connection, didn’t run on my old phone, feels not as responsive as

hanping lite: pros: less complicated than pleco, good handwriting input, allows simultaneous display of traditional + simplified characters, better component system than pleco, no flashcards but tags including customizable ones, offline voice including soundboard, runs on a fucking brick. cons: less professional vibe than pleco, cantonese is pay only, zhuyin cannot be displayed simultaneously with pinyin

overall when it comes to dictionaries, hanping lite is my casual day-to-day use because i used it on my old phone for half a year and got used to it and pleco when i need more professional dictionary entries. the huge number of modules is a bit of a risk though as some are faulty

*hello chinese: 30000/10, comes in german :D i’m almost done with the free lessons and i seriously love it. great intro and repetition, love the videos they use

*chinesimple’s HSK apps: 1 each for level 1-5, partially free. tbh i am not using them intensively but i like them to kinda train on the side. they have a great variety of exercises and convey grammar points well. also available in german

skritter: i remember that i didn’t particularly like it but i wasn’t sure why so i tried to start it up again and it broke 0/10 baby what’s going on? anyway hello chinese has handwriting exercises too and decent online dictionaries include strokes anyway so like. why bother

zizzle: funky vibe but only has a short trial period

hsk online: that’s a lie i never tried that one out because whenever i install it it never works? my teachers keep recommending it yet it’s...kinda sus...

ninchanese: not far because i installed it 2 days ago and it lost connection in competitive mode. like the cat theme though and the lessons look good. would love it if the back button didn’t unspool exercises

infinite chinese: bro why. i mean. i like it. it’s decent for learning vocab groups but use only as a supplement since it only teaches the vocab, no breaking down words, no explaining characters, no sentences. country audio is broken for me tho :(

du chinese: 12/10 haven’t opened it since i read a fucked-up story about water bears. it’s great though. as the name says it reads stories out loud

anki droid: bro i am not made for flashcards peace out

speechling: have also not tried that one yet lmao

duolingo: lmao didn’t get far. but you hear bad things about the chinese course anyway

JA sensei: keep on laughing pal, i installed that for my mom. anyway it’s ironic that the first time i encountered a radical learn help was on a japanese app and i sure am going to use it. ninchanese also has a radical part but i haven’t tried it yet

Chinese in flow: vocab drill only, minimalistic, sweet. breaks it down into 30-word-chunks

hanzi study: tests are paid but the lessons themselves are free. 20 characters per lesson + some words and example sentences (some truly weird ones). minor glitches but it has main radical, frequency, simplified stroke animation

[flyingcookierambles]

study plans?

recently i feel like my friend going to japanese college has motivated me to try to start studying japanese again. plus some spontaneous chinese here and there, more vocab/pronunciation/tone focused rather than grammar right now.

ended up a kinda long ramble lol, ill cut it up into two pieces.

i literally do daily: 1 duolingo so the owl doesnt hunt me down like the weak prey i am (any language)

i try to do once a day: 1 or 2 anki decks for vocab. for japanese i use many: JLPT N4, Genki 1 & 2 Including Genki Supplementary Vocab,  Core 2k/6K Optimized Japanese Vocabulary, 2500 Most-Used kanji. For Chinese I use the HSK level 1/2/3 word list. these are seperate, just a pain to type lol. i dont use wanikani actually lol. the renaming of radicals annoyed/confused me, who was forced to learn the names of the very proper strokes in high school chinese lol. plus having no assessment test and having to start over from the very beginning and then getting the simplest kanji wrong because i remember the radical by its shape or a stroke by its proper chinese name and not a silly american name (no i did not learn this character is actually wearing a hat or a pot lid. thats weird.), i just got kinda annoyed and went back to simple anki flashcards lol.

3-4 times a week: going over 2-4 grammar concept from genki 2 so far. partly because when i was studying with my 2 friends over the summer we were doing a cramming thing for our friend to to get up to standards of the college they were transferring to, now attending. as a result, we uhh. kinda skipped over basically all vocab. only did the grammar, and sometimes not even all the grammar. we skipped over really simple stuff (ie the volitionary form which is just slapping a ~ou/おう at the end of things) and the stuff that was just -te form + some extra words. so i’m finally properly going over that stuff in full, alone. plus im rewriting/digitizing my notes in onenote bc pencil and pen kinda smear/fade over time so this will just be better if i want to go to my notes for reference in the future. the ease of searching by control+f is also nice compared to flipping thru pages in confusion. i also feel like my learning style is def repetitive related, so going over things a second time works for me. (for japanese im using using genki 2/the genki 2 track on bunpro.jp. (this website is incredible and for the most part free. even if you want the premium sub version, the cheapest sub plan is $2 a month! while i dont have it, i did do the free trial when i first signed up and it was ok and you can totally do the free version and get all the barebones japanese grammar explanations from like 4 different textbooks) when/if i ever finish genki 2, ill just check out the minna no nihongo track on bunpro, more to see if there’s any grammar that gets covered in that one that genki doesnt have. if they’re just the same but a different order or something, ill just move on to the tobira track since its the intro to real intermediate japanese grammar.) i might check out the free textbook irodori, more out of curiosity than seriousness honestly. iroiro uses a different fluency grading system than the common JLPT N5-1 levels, iroiro uses the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, or CERFL. Since im focusing on the JLPT N level standards and these are totally different curriculums and stuff, im not sure how helpful irodori will be to me at this point but ill look at it because its a free textbook. when i try to relearn chinese again ill dig out my integrated chinese textbooks (goodreads), only intermediate since i seem to have lost my beginner editions somewhere in my house between moving from college dorm to house every summer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . i might check out the all set learning site, it seems to both HSK and CERFL. ill probably review the HSK 1-2 stuff real quick since thats basically what i learned in high school/college and i kinda forget a lot since its been like 6 years now. then ill maybe hopefully finally get to HSK 3. ill try to watch videos from yoyochinese on youtube too. she explains things really clearly and helpfully to native english speakers in a way that my previous teachers havent been able to. ill stick to the youtube tho since ive heard that the actual courses from her website are very expensive for online self study tho, and purchasing a regular textbook would be cheaper lol. 

once a week: try to use words from anki decks + whatever grammar i learned in practice sentences/make up sentences yourself. this is a bit hard bc since im self studying if my sentences end up wrong/sounding awkward to a native speaker i am not really sure how to check lol. i’m on polyglot.city (a mastodon instance focused on language learning/blogging) and i post there sometimes and people have helped me/rated my sentences every now and then but recently its been very slow. (japanese, altho i hope that i regain enough of my mandarin skills to do this again sometime)

every 2 weeks: after accumulating grammar for a bit, i try to read a grade/language level appropriate short story in the language. (hint: the level of a toddler probably lol.) for japanese i started using satori reader, altho other short story apps exist. for chinese there’s du chinese and tcb/the chairman’s bao. honestly i use du chinese just because im too lazy to make an account for tcb, altho i may finally make an account and use it one day. one day..... (japanese and chinese)

for japanese i just want to get to tobira right now and then long term is simply reaching what is probably jlpt n3, the typical not quite fluent but still ok enough to conduct business or ask a native speaker for help in a convenience store. kinda eh, a good middle intermediate level. from that point, i should be ok enough to try to read a YA novel. no not a light novel (might try it tho) but like a regular novel for middle schoolers. or maybe doremon? ill see where it goes from there. i hope to at least be able to understand some of the things an average person would like a weather forecast on the nhk or a short newspaper article. maybe ill take the actual jlpt test someday.....not sure how to sign up/where to find it in my city tho....

for chinese, i just want to know more vocab and improve my tones/pronunciation right now. 

[hskchinese]

How to Prepare for the HSK Chinese Proficiency Test

If you are learning Mandarin and want to officially certify your Chinese skills, you're looking for the HSK Chinese Proficiency test!

Even if you haven't started studying Chinese yet, maybe you’ve heard about the HSK and are curious to learn more.

Read on to learn everything you need to know about the HSK test, including advice on how to best prepare for the exam!

What is the HSK? HSK is the commonly used name for the 汉语水平考试 (hàn yǔ shuǐ píng kǎo shì) - Chinese Proficiency Test. It is the most popular and internationally accepted exam to assess non-native speakers’ proficiency in using the Chinese language in their academic and day-to-day lives.

Who should take the HSK? The HSK is useful for different types of Mandarin learners in different ways. •  For job seekers who are non-native speakers of Chinese, the HSK is an official way to prove one’s ability to a potential employer. • For students who want to study at a Chinese university, the HSK is a required exam. A level 4 certification is required to pursue a bachelor’s degree, while a level 5 is required for a master’s.

Lastly, even if studying or working in China is not in your future plans, many students choose to take the HSK as an official milestone of their learning progress. The structured levels of the exams provide tangible and attainable goals to work towards and helps these students feel motivated as they go through their Mandarin learning journey.

What is the structure of the HSK exam? Since 2010, there have been six levels to the HSK, with Level 1 being the easiest, and Level 6 being the most difficult.

The test breaks down into two major portions, with the first being vocabulary, and the second being a written test. Check out this chart that sums up what is tested at each HSK level.

You need to have a good idea of your own Chinese proficiency level before attempting the exam. For beginners who can hold everyday conversations and know a basic set of vocabulary (or have completed our Beginner Conversational Course), Level 1 or Level 2 is most appropriate. At this level, writing is not yet tested.

For more advanced learners who can read Chinese newspapers and are able to write a speech or article (or have completed our Upper Intermediate Conversational Course and our Chinese Character Courses, Level 5 might be a solid goal. Many Chinese job opportunities require an HSK Level of 5 or higher.

What’s the difference between Mandarin Courses vs HSK Prep Courses? If you are serious about learning Mandarin, it is important to understand that HSK prep courses should not be your main resource.

HSK prep courses are like taking a class for the SATs: the curriculum of the course is geared solely towards helping you pass the exam. Learning Mandarin this way like taking a college entrance exam prep course instead of actually going through high school. It's not an effective way to learn, and you will miss out on so much of the rich intricacies of the culture and the language!

Maybe it goes without saying, but I highly recommend choosing online Chinese courses as your program for learning Mandarin. If you aren't already going through the free lessons at the start of all the courses, you can check out this video for more information on how the Chinese program works:

Even if you choose not to study with Chinese, you should choose a structured course that actually teaches you the language from the ground up, and that you can follow all the way to fluency without having to switch to a different program. By going through a comprehensive course, students develop a more holistic understanding of Mandarin Chinese and feel more connected to the language. Using unstructured resources or exam prep books to try and learn Mandarin leads to feeling like you aren't making progress, which leads to frustration, which leads to quitting.

That is not to say that there isn’t a place in your learning arsenal for HSK prep material!  When you are feeling ready to take an exam, you should create a structured test prep plan and break out the practice exams. The HSK prep material will serve as the Bootcamp right before the test, but you need to have developed a solid and thorough foundation for your Chinese before you switch gears into test prep mode.

How should I study for the HSK exam? As you follow a comprehensive Mandarin course that builds up your skills, you will naturally become ready for different levels of the HSK. After you decide which level of the HSK is right for your current skill set, it’s time to focus on test prep.

It is crucial to do as many practice exams as possible in a simulated test environment. Once you feel like your vocabulary and listening skills are at least passable (they do not have to be perfect!), it is time to take a mock exam.

The key to making the most of the mock exam is to prepare for it as if you are taking the real exam. Give yourself a time limit, sit at your desk, and turn off all the distractions. The closer you make your mock exam experience to the real exam, the more comfortable and relaxed you will be during the actual exam – because it’s like you’ve done it before!

You might be discouraged by your scores for the first few mock exams, but you have to remember that these scores are part of the journey, and NOT the final destination. Your mock exams will point you in the right direction as to what area you need to focus on improving.

There are many resources you can draw on as part of your study journey. Tech-savvy people might find flashcard apps to be most helpful, while others may prefer exam prep books. If you're studying with online Chinese, you've already got interactive flashcards and quizzes to help you review!

Do what works best for you, but make sure you have a plan and commit to it. Happy studying!

[meiyuchinese01]

HSK 2 Online Course in India

Introduction: Welcome to our blog post on HSK 2 Online Course, a comprehensive program designed to help you master Mandarin Chinese at the HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) Level 2. Whether you’re a beginner or have some basic knowledge of the language, this course will provide you with the necessary tools and resources to improve your language skills. In this article, we will delve into the details of the HSK 2 Online Course, its benefits, and how it can help you progress in your Mandarin language journey.

Understanding HSK 2: The HSK 2, administered by the Chinese government, is an internationally recognized proficiency test for non-native speakers of Mandarin Chinese. It assesses your ability to understand and use simple Chinese phrases and sentences. Achieving HSK 2 proficiency signifies that you can communicate in familiar, everyday situations and possess a vocabulary of approximately 300 commonly used words.

Benefits of HSK 2 Online Course: Structured Curriculum: The HSK 2 Online Course provides a well-structured curriculum that covers all the essential aspects of HSK 2 proficiency. It includes comprehensive lessons, interactive exercises, and audio resources to enhance your listening and speaking skills.

Expert Guidance: Our experienced instructors are committed to helping you succeed. They offer personalized guidance, feedback, and support throughout the course, ensuring that you grasp the language concepts effectively.

Flexibility and Convenience: With the HSK 2 Online Course, you have the freedom to learn at your own speed and from anywhere in the world. The course materials are accessible 24/7, allowing you to study whenever it suits you best.

Practice Sessions: Regular practice is key to improving your language skills. The course provides ample opportunities for practice through quizzes, exercises, and mock tests. These activities help reinforce what you’ve learned and boost your confidence in using Mandarin Chinese.

Engaging Learning Resources: To make the learning process enjoyable, the HSK 2 Online Course incorporates a variety of engaging resources such as videos, interactive games, and culturally relevant content. These resources not only aid in language acquisition but also provide insights into Chinese culture and traditions.

Why Choose HSK 2 Online Course Over Other Options? Quality Instruction: The HSK 2 Online Course is developed by language experts who have extensive knowledge of teaching Mandarin Chinese to non-native speakers. The course materials are designed to cater specifically to HSK 2 requirements, ensuring a focused and effective learning experience.

Cost-Effective: Compared to traditional language classes, the HSK 2 Online Course offers excellent value for money. It eliminates the need for commuting and provides access to high-quality resources at an affordable price.

Track Your Progress: With the HSK 2 Online Course, you can easily track your progress through regular assessments and performance evaluations. This feature allows you to identify areas for improvement and focus on them accordingly.

Certification: Successfully completing the HSK 2 Online Course prepares you for the HSK 2 exam. Achieving a good score on the HSK 2 test not only boosts your confidence but also opens doors to further language learning opportunities and career prospects.

Conclusion: Embarking on the HSK 2 Online Course is a significant step towards mastering Mandarin Chinese. Whether you’re learning for personal growth, academic purposes, or career advancement, this course equips you with the necessary language skills to communicate effectively. Start your journey today and take advantage of the flexibility, expert guidance, and comprehensive resources offered by the HSK 2 Online Course.

[echineselearning-blog1]

How to Study for Chinese HSK Exam?

As a standardized test of general language proficiency, HSK is not based on any particular textbook or course of study. Therefore, candidates may refer to any textbook in preparing for the test. Nevertheless, it is important that all candidates read the HSK Test Syllabus carefully. A guide for the pre-test preparation contains an introduction to HSK, a sample HSK test paper, answer key, HSK glossary, and a CD of the sample listening questions. Do you have trouble finding the HSK Test Syllabus? Sign up for a free trial now!

Prepare for HSK Exam The vital thing for the HSK exam is knowing the meaning of words. Understanding the general idea of the passage is not enough; it is essential to understand some background information about the book itself, like the author’s information and the year of publication. A clear definition of the differences between similar words is of paramount importance as this is a large part of the HSK exam.

Last but not least, reading and writing play an important role in the HSK exam. Having an extensive vocabulary will be a huge advantage as well as having some adept writing skills; these can be developed by preparing for the exam properly.

Tips for Taking HSK Exam 1. Prepare properly. Some Chinese learners feel they are ready but still fail the HSK exam; this is because they have not fully understood the structure or content of the exam and hence fail due to a lack of preparation.

2. Have a clear goal of what you want to achieve. The HSK exam should encourage learners to deepen their understanding of the language and continue to learn. If you pass the HSK text, it does not mean you have peaked and cannot learn anymore. Use it as a way to learn rather than a definitive assessment of your level.

Helpful Books for HSK Exam Good books are essential to getting a high score on the HSK text. Thus, some commonly used preparation books for the HSK are recommended to Chinese learners, such as Chinese Learning Cards for HSK, HSK Essentials, Say it in Chinese, HSK Growing Training, Express Way to HSK (tactics and highlights of HSK ), HSK Listening Key Words, An Intensive Course of HSK, HSK dictionary, etc. All the HSK books above will give you plenty of practice for the HSK exam while improving your Chinese.

How Could We Help for Your HSK Test Preparation? HSK text Preparation Course provided by eChineseLearning is an online pre-examination training course tailor-made for students who are planning to...

...for the FULL LESSON on studying for the HSK Exam, you can READ ALONG WITH US HERE!

[mandarinclass101]

7 best free online Chinese tutor websites

—-As more and more people learn Chinese, the “Chinese craze” is set off. The enthusiasm for Chinese learning is very high, and there are often questions about Chinese as a foreign language education curriculum, such as: Are there any high-quality Chinese tutor websites provide free Chinese online course?

In fact, the resources on the Internet are still very rich, and there are many good Chinese online tutors. If you look carefully, there are still some completely free Chinese teacher teaching videos and learning tools. The following is a list of some good learning resources that Chinese learners can use for free. All links have been tested for free registration, videos can be download and play, and they are real and effective.

1,Tsinghua University —– “Chinese as a Foreign Language”

Recommended reason

National Excellent Chinese as a Foreign Language MOOC, Top 50 in 2018 Global MOOC Ranking

course features

The “Tsinghua University Chinese as a Foreign Language” MOOC consists of two parts: Introduction to Chinese (taught in English) and Chinese teaching design (taught in Chinese). It is suitable for Chinese beginners and learners who are interested in Chinese teaching. The course adopts the story-based teaching method, and revolves around the learning and life stories of a boy Peter and a Chinese tutor. The content is close to life, so that students can fall in love with Chinese learning in a relaxed and active atmosphere. The course content is scientific and reasonable, well-made, and the exercises are lively and interesting. What’s even more rare is that all videos and conversations are free to download and can be learned and watched over and over again.

Click me to visit this URL

2.Peking University –— “Chinese Teaching MOOC Resource Database” series of courses

Course content

Learn Chinese：HSK Test Preparation

Chinese for HSK1

Chinese for HSK2

Chinese for HSK3 Part Ⅰ

Chinese for HSK3 Part Ⅱ

Chinese for HSK4

Chinese for HSK5

Chinese for HSK6

汉字

Chinese Characters for Beginners

Chinese Characters forBeginners(2)

基础汉语

Chinese for Beginners

More Chinese for Beginners

business Chinese

Intermediate Business Chinese – Onboarding and Marketing

Intermediate Business Chinese – Business Activities

Chinese grammar

Intermediate Chinese Grammar

Core Grammar of Modern Chinese

Chinese Cultural Communication

Recommended reason

Content-rich knowledge base for Chinese-themed learning

course features

This series of courses is a free and open MOOC as a Foreign Language of Peking University for Chinese learner. It consists of six topics: HSK Chinese language learning (from zero to HSK level 6), Chinese character learning, basic Chinese, business Chinese, Chinese grammar, and Chinese and cultural communication. It consists of 17 courses in total, and each topic is designed with corresponding course content and rich exercises according to the students’ language level. It is a valuable free learning resource for students who want to learn Chinese with online Chinese tutor

How to watch

Log in to the official website of Chinese MOOC for free registration and search for the course name as needed.

Click me to visit this URL

Duolingo

Recommended reason

Duolingo is one of the few websites that can make learning Chinese fun. If you are a beginner in Chinese learning, or you are relatively young, he is the most suitable Chinese teacher for you. You can try this way of memorizing vocabulary and answering questions, earning points to unlock new categories and reach new levels.

Feature

This app focuses on vocabulary memory, it divides words by different life themes. If your main goal is to memorize vocabulary, it’s great for you, but if you want to focus on skills like listening and speaking, here are the sites recommended above, and I suggest you download an app or two to complement Duolingo.

Click me to visit this URL

4.Pleco

Recommended reason

Chinese dictionary app, with the slogan of being the best Chinese dictionary in the world, claims that millions of people in (at least) 180 countries use their software to help learn and communicate Chinese.

feature

It is indeed a powerful dictionary application. It is basically the most widely used and well-received Chinese dictionary application. Its basic functions are powerful enough to query and explain words through methods such as Chinese, English, pinyin, handwriting, and glyphs. It is also very rich, providing a large number of related phrase queries, and both simplified and traditional characters are marked, and Chinese characters with similar appearance are also listed. And the website has been updated continuously for ten years, including many dictionaries. Not only for Chinese learners, but also highly recommended for Chinese teachers to learn English

Click me to visit this URL

5.Chineseskill

Recommended reason

A Chinese learning app similar to the Rosetta Stone, with relatively complete courses (but mainly focusing on grammar and vocabulary, but not including pronunciation practice), strong interface affinity, high evaluation in the Apple Store in the United States, and a pass-through mode similar to Duolingo, The app also provides flashcard-style exercises for the characters and words that have been learned. However, some users suggest that the learning content is still relatively basic. This app is still a good online chinese tutor for comprehensive mandarin learning. You can see by looking at the content it contains: 1000+ keywords and phrases, 50+ Chinese/Mandarin conversation topics , 150+ Chinese/Mandarin grammatical structures, more than 200 sentence patterns, the main content covered are Mandarin basics/pinyin, Chinese food, shopping in China, traveling to China (such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Suzhou, Kunming), Chinese/mandarin games

feature

Game-Based Learning: Countless mini-games run through the entire learning process, testing your listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills all the time.

Addictive

During the learning process, you can constantly challenge the high score, constantly upgrade the advanced level, and constantly invite your friends to compete. The whole learning process is filled with a sense of achievement and joy.

Efficient:

The learning of each skill and task is divided into small units that you can complete in a shorter period of time. Even if it’s only ten minutes, you can finish a lesson, track your progress, and review the characters, words, and sentences you’ve learned.

Practical

You can record your Chinese pronunciation and compare it with the standard pronunciation.

Click me to visit this URL

6.Zhengyin Miles

A Chinese phonetic learning software. Currently, there are extremely few Chinese phonetic learning applications on the market. Although the above applications basically have pronunciation functions, they are often unable to perform complete phonetic learning. This application is specially designed for the learning of Chinese tones and Chinese pinyin, with complete content and pronunciation explanations, which are suitable for reference learning.

However, although the application can record, it does not have a voice evaluation function (but it seems that there is no Chinese learning software with a voice evaluation function). This app is also excellent as an aid for Chinese beginners to learn Hanyu Pinyin.

Renew：It’s a pity, I don’t know why, this software can’t be seen in the Apple store, Android users can download it at the URL given below

Click me to visit this URL

7.Mock test platform recommendation

Chinese test full simulation diagnostic test system

One of the best ways of reviewing is self-examination. In order to meet the learning and test preparation needs of Chinese learners around the world, HSK International has opened the official online mock test system for free, covering HSK levels 1-6 and YCT levels 1-4. Students can get instant feedback information such as answer analysis and score diagnosis report after handing in the papers, which improves the pertinence of review and preparation.Click on the Chinese Test Full-True Mock Diagnostic Test to view the operation guide for free. Students who want to take exams or test their learning achievements can use this website to improve their Chinese proficiency

Click me to visit this URL

Now you’ve got a great set of resources，

A totally free online Chinese tutor

Nothing can stop you from learning Chinese/mandarin

What are you waiting for？ start now

[thelanguagecommunity]

this post is meant to be a directory of every resource I come across for Mandarin, often referred to as Chinese or Standard Chinese. It will be a continuous work in progress so thank you for your patience! if you have any issues or things to add, please reply to this post!

info

history of the chinese writing system

"in mandarin chinese, we don't say..."

language learning profile

playlist of samples

the languages gulper

wikipedia

apps

chineseskill

decipher - reading app for students

du chinese - improve reading

flewent [chrome]

hellochinese

lingodeer

pandarow

readlang

zhongwen [chrome]

book recommendations

chinese magazine recommendations by fluentu

characters [ hànzì ]

base characters [tinycards flashcards]

basic rules of stroke order

calligraphy worksheets

character directory

characters by number of radicals

chineasy [scans]

common differences between traditional and simplified radicals

demystifying the chinese writing - ikindalikelanguages

guide to the chinese radicals

how characters are actually used to write chinese

most common chinese radicals [pdf]

peking university - chinese characters fro beginners [mooc]

radicals

radical index

radicals and variants [table]

reading and writing chinese [scans]

similar-looking radicals [table]

simplified radicals [printable]

courses

basic mandarin chinese - level 1 [mooc]

beginner’s chinese [mooc]

bliubliu

book2

cambridge university - basic chinese language studies [mooc]

chineasy

daydayupchinese

duolingo

intermediate business chinese: recruitment and marketing [mooc]

linguti

mandarin chinese: first steps in chinese [mooc]

mangolanguages [course outline pdf]

mondly

peace corps [pdf]

peking university - chinese for beginners [mooc]

peking university - chinese for hsk 1 [mooc]

peking university - chinese for hsk 2 [mooc]

peking university - more chinese for beginners [mooc]

routledge - basic chinese: a grammar and workbook [scans]

simplang

speak mandarin in five hundred words [pdf]

spoken chinese 900: book one [pdf]

teach yourself - mandarin [pdf]

tsinghua chinese: star talking with 1.3 billion people [mooc]

university of texas at austin - chinese take-in

university of texas at austin - gateway to chinese

wordbrewery

dictionaries

bab.la

chinese notes

dictionary app suggestions by @liu-anhuaming

wordreference

flashcards

quizlet

forums

/r/chineselanguage [reddit]

/r/learnchinese [reddit]

stackexchange

unilang

grammar books & guides

overview of chinese grammar

peking university - intermediate chinese grammar [mooc]

grammar points

classifiers / overview of chinese classifiers

intensifying

making comparisons

把 structures

listening practice

librivox [audiobook library]

loyal books [library & audiobooks]

transcribing drills

literature

a chinese text sampler

baha'i prayers

children’s songs & rhymes

chinesereadingpractice [short shories with translations]

Hadiths [scans]

list of chinese-language poets

manybooks [virtual library]

modern chinese literature and culture [academic journal]

overview of chinese literature

overview of women in chinese literature

poetry international web [poetry library with translations]

project gutenberg [virtual library]

Quran / Quran [scans]

universal declaration of human rights [pdf]

wikisource [virtual library]

media

pocoyo

ted talks [simplified]

ted talks [traditional]

movies & tv show recommendations

letterboxd

music recommendations

disney songs [youtube playlist]

song recommendations by @language-obsession

spotify playlist by @polyglotinthemaking-blog

news

bbc / bbc [youtube]

newspaper map

newspaper recommendations by MIT

ntd [youtube]

rfa [youtube]

voice of america / voa [youtube]

phrasebooks & travel guides

chinapress.com

conversational mandarin chinese online

defense language institute basic guide

fodor’s travel

loecsen [audio]

survival phrases

teach yourself: mandarin chinese conversation - elizabeth scurfield & song lianyi [pdf]

video clips of survival chinese

wikivoyage

pinyin

keyboard - typeit

phonetic and pinyin transcriptor

pinyin chart

pinyin translator

podcasts

coffee break chinese [itunes link]

one minute mandarin

pronunciation

a report of the standford phonology archive [scans]

forvo [pronunciation dictionary]

IPA transcription chart

overview of standard chinese phonology

phonetic and pinyin transcriptor

pinyin to ipa translator

pronunciation guide - languagetrav

quizzes & exercises

practical chinese reader self-tests

quizzes - goethe-verlag

quizzes - iteslj

tongue twisters / tongue twisters

user-submitted games - quia

vocabulary games - digitaldialects

radio

music radio stations

radio in beijing

voice of america

speaking tips

exclamations

profanity / overview of mandarin chinese profanity

proverbs - wikiquote

slang

special topics

foreign names in chinese

place names

standardized tests

free response questions from the AP test [pdf]

tips on the AP chinese exam by @sunlightstudys

topics to prepare for the AP speaking portion

tumblrs

@biddiesspeaking

@chinasimplified

@chineseffect

@chineseisawesome

@chinesephrasebook

@chineserules

@hanyuzhongwen

@magnetizedtomandarin

@mandarinmostly

@mandarinxworld

@meitianhanyu

@sionedschinese

@speakupchinese

@studymorechinese

@tiantianxuexi

@zenmezhongwen

@zhong-wen

verbs

verb list / basic verbs / 40 basic verbs

vocabulary => [POST HERE]

writing help

overview of chinese calligraphy

tips for essays in chinese

word frequency counter

youtube

chinesepod101

echineselearning

ezmandarin

khan academy in mandarin

learn chinese now

learn chinese with emma

learn mandarin from the streets [playlist]

mangolanguages

[meichenxi]

HSK Online update!

So I’m now a couple of weeks into this course and thought I would give everybody an update on how things are going. 

The course as mentioned before has two main parts: the (very extensive) app that you work through, doing vocabulary, HSK specific tests, grammar and so on, as well as the live lessons and classes. At the end of each 9-lesson unit, there’s some kind of exam or special training to complete, as well as successfully reviewing all of the content until now. 

The online lessons are wonderful as always - they’re my favourite part. The teacher teaches at exactly the right level, the little bit of ‘competition’ with the other students is fun, and it forces me to be faster.

The app too is well-designed. What I find most challenging about the course is the intensity it moves at: before every lesson you have to review/learn around 3 units of vocabulary and grammar. Some of this you may know, but some may be completely new. I think if I had previously learnt all the vocab from HSK5 this intensity wouldn’t be a problem; it would be a very useful reviewing period. I can tell that some of the other students have clearly gone through HSK5 many times on the app before taking the vocabulary - there’s one student in particular who is miles ahead of the rest of us. 

For me, personally, I find the reading and grammar sections very challenging as they use a lot of new words that haven’t been taught yet. The good thing about this is that it exposes you to ‘real exam conditions’, and so whilst this may be disheartening, you’re in a much better position to approach the exams when they come around, and the wall of text that I apparently love to talk about isn’t as forbidding. 

With that in mind, then, who would I recommend this for? 

1) Those with a solid base in HSK5 who are not confident in their exam technique / want to review. I think this is who the course is aimed for, and they do an excellent job of it. I personally have probably suffered from not having studied all the way through HSK5 (I had done about a quarter when the class began and knew some other random vocab from other studies), and am definitely finding the pace of the course challenging. For the words or grammar points which I do know, however, the review style is perfect. So this would suit most the group of people above. 

2) Those without a solid base in HSK5 who have the hours to put in the work. I am gaining a lot from this course, though I’m constantly trying to keep up. If you don’t have HSK5 level vocabulary, however, you may find that the pace of the course and the materials used (in grammar sections etc, all HSK5 with a lot of vocabulary you won’t have come across) is challenging. This isn’t meant to discourage, just to inform - it’s a huge step from HSK4 and I think the app is representative of the level of language you need to do well in the exam. Aside from the app, though, if this is your first time coming across these words, you’ll need to spend some time with a flashcards app learning them most days to get the most out of it. 

Let me know if you have any questions or are interested in hearing more about the course!

- 梅晨曦 

[ibnuljawad69]

Professional Examination Preparatory Classes Started Online & Physical

Professional Examination Preparatory Classes Started Online & Physical

Chinese HSK Level 1, 2, 3 & 4 (HSK3 HSK4 as per ConfuciusInstitute)

German A1, A2, B1, B2 (As Per Goethe Institute)

Japanese JLCT, JLPT, N5-N4 (as per curriculum approved by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) through the Japan Educational Exchanges and Services (JEES)

Korean TOPIK, KLAT (Korean Language Ability Test)

French TCF (Test de connaissance du français)

Russian Conversation Skills, TEU, TBU, ToRFL-I (TORFL- The Test of Russian as a Foreign Language)

Turkish Level 1 & 2 TÖMER Examination, TÖS Preparation

Spanish Language, Italian Language, Portuguese Language, Greek Language

Documents Translation Services are also available

Female Faculty for Girls

Location Map https://g.page/AFLPak

Contact for Details at +923169575318

Visit us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AFLPakistan2020

[mintdonna2-blog]

ECNU Full and Partial Confucius Institute Scholarship for Non-Chinese Students in China, 2019

The Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) is happy to announce “Confucius Institute Scholarship” (CIS) at East China Normal University (ECNU) for the year 2019. Scholarships are available for Non-Chinese citizens.

For the purpose of cultivating qualified Chinese language teachers and facilitating the promotion of Chinese language and culture, the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) launches “Confucius Institute Scholarship” (CIS) to support outstanding students, scholars and currently employed Chinese language teachers recommended by Confucius Institutes, independently operated Confucius Classrooms as well as some HSK test centers (hereinafter to be collectively referred to as “recommending institutions”) to study in Chinese universities and colleges (hereinafter referred to as “host institutions”).

Founded in Shanghai in October 1951, East China Normal University (ECNU) is one of the most prestigious universities in China and is sponsored by the national programs “Project 211” and “Project 985”. With two campuses located in Minhang and Putuo District, and with a total area of over 207 hectares, ECNU has long been reputed as a Garden University for its beautiful campus scenes.

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Scholarship Description

Applications Deadline: a) April 20th (for those commencing in July), b) May 20th (for those commencing in September), c) September 20th (for those commencing in December) and d) November 20th (for those commencing in March 2020).

Course Level and Study Subject:

Scholarship for PhD’s Degree in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (PhDTCSOL)

Commences September 2019 and provides scholarship for maximum four academic years. Applicants shall be Master degree in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages, Language Study, and other related educational majors, and have a minimum score of 200 in HSK Test (Level 6) as well as 60 in HSKK test (Intermediate Level). Applicants should have worked as Chinese teachers or other related jobs for more than 2 years.

2. Scholarship for Master’s Degree in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (MTCSOL)

Commences September 2019 and provides scholarship for maximum two academic years.  Applicants shall be Bachelor degree holders, and have a minimum score of 210 in HSK Test (Level 5) as well as 60 in HSKK test (Intermediate Level). Applicants who are able to provide notarized document of the employment agreement or related proofs upon completing study in China are preferred.

3. Scholarship for Bachelor’s Degree in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (BTCSOL)

Commences September 2019 and provides scholarship for maximum four academic years. Applicants must have graduated with a high school diploma, and have a minimum score of 210 in HSK Test (Level 4) as well as 60 in HSKK test (Intermediate Level).

4. Scholarship for One-Academic-Year Study

Commences September 2019, and provides scholarship for maximum 11 months. International students currently studying in China are not eligible.

5. TCSOL

Applicants shall have a minimum score of 270 in HSK test (Level 3), while HSKK test score required.

6. Chinese Language and Literature, Chinese History, and Chinese Philosophy

Applicants shall have a minimum score of 180 in HSK test (Level 4) and 60 in HSKK test (intermediate level).

 iii. Chinese Language Study

Applicants shall have a minimum score of 210 in HSK test (Level 3 ).

7. Scholarship for One-Semester Study

Commences either in September 2019 or March 2020, and provides scholarship of maximum 5 months. Applicants with holding visas X1 or X2 are not eligible.

8. TCSOL, Chinese Language and Literature, Chinese History and Chinese Philosophy

Applicants shall have a minimum score of 180 in HSK test (Level 3), while HSKK test score required.

9. Scholarship for Four-Week Study

Commences either on July or December of 2019, and provides a four-week scholarship. Applicants withholding visas X1 or X2 are not eligible.

10. Chinese Language plus Home-stay Experience in a Chinese Family

HSK test score are required. Organized and applied by a Confucius Institute with 10-15 participants per group. Prior to the trip, a detailed study plan shall be made after consultation with host institutions and submit to Hanban for approval.

11. Special Four-week Program for Confucius Institutes

HSK test score are required. Organized and applied by a Confucius Institute with 10-15 participants per group.

Scholarship Award: The Confucius Institute Scholarship provides full scholarship and partial scholarship. Full Scholarship consists of tuition fee, accommodation fee, living allowance and comprehensive medical insurance expenses; Partial scholarship covers tuition fee, accommodation fee, and comprehensive medical insurance expenses. The monthly allowance for undergraduates, one-academic-year study students and one-semester students is 2,500 CNY per person. For MTCSOL student, the monthly allowance is 3,000 CNY per person. For PhDTCSOL student, the monthly allowance is 3,500 CNY per person. University provides on-campus dormitory with double beds for scholarship students. Students hoping to live off-campus should apply to the university and receive the off-campus permission from the university. Then the accommodation allowance for PhD student is RMB1,000 per month per person and other scholarship students is RMB700 per month per person. The degree scholarship program applicants are subject to annual academic performance review. Only those who achieve outstanding records in academic and Chinese language proficiency are entitled to receive the scholarship for the following year.

Nationality: Scholarships are available for Non-Chinese citizens.

Number of Scholarships: Numbers not given

Scholarship can be taken in China

Eligibility for the Scholarship

Eligible Countries: Scholarships are available for Non-Chinese citizens.

Entrance Requirements: All applicants shall be

a) Non-Chinese citizens

b) In good Physical and mental condition, well performed both academically and behaviorally

c) Aspired to take future careers on the teaching or international promotion of Chinese language

d) Between the ages of 16-35 on September 1st, 2019. Applicants currently worked as Chinese language teachers shall not exceed the age limit of 45, while undergraduate students shall not exceed the age limit of 25.

Application Procedure

How to Apply: 1. For application, please log on to the ECNU online application system and Confucius Institute Scholarships website (http://cis.chinese.cn) to register, complete the Application Form online, and upload the scanned copies of relevant supporting documents.

Contact Recommending Institutions:

Confucius Institutes and Confucius classrooms which have been in operation for more than six months.

Testing centers for Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK which have the right to recommend Confucius Institute Scholarship candidates.

III. Oversea organizers of Chinese Bridge Competition: education and cultural offices (groups) of China’s oversea embassies (consulates), Confucius Institute and relevant educational institutions. For further information, please consult chinesebridge-at-hanban.org.

Host institutions will review the eligibility of applicants (An interview is required for ECNU degree program applicants), and Hanban will conduct an overall assessment of all applications and admit applicants on the basis of competitive selection.

After confirming with the successful applicants, host institutions will post the Admission documents. The copy of the scholarship certificate can be print out from the CIS website.

Scholarship Link

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Source: https://scholarship-positions.com/confucius-institute-scholarship-non-chinese-students-east-china-normal-university-china/2018/12/17/