User Comments - Alphalifestyle

Posted on: Tips on How To Prepare for the HSK

Hey Elijah,

thanks for your input. I just asked a friend from China to buy the 4 volumes of HSK6 标准教材  for me and bring them when he comes to Germany next month! Actually I still have a pile of HSK 6 material I bought in 2014 when I studied for one year at the history department of Nanjing university.

Due to the artificiality of the HSK6 material which you mentioned, which also includeds learning a huge amount of Chengyu, which are not really that important in spoken Chinese at least, I feel a little annoyed by the preparation necessary to take it, but as a 10 year student of Chinese I just want to get it over with, haha. I guess its an ego thing,  so yeah, I guess in the end I have to agree with you, that ChinesePod is best advised to "Filling up the gap in the dry, barren landscape of real-life spoken Chinese materials." with great, long colloquial conversations reflecting the Chinese thats actually spoken on the streets at the time.

Posted on: Five ways of seeing: 看、见、看见、看到、看出

Hey Elijah,

thanks for your input. I just asked a friend from China to buy the 4 volumes of HSK6 标准教材  for me and bring them when he comes to Germany next month! Actually I still have a pile of HSK 6 material I bought in 2014 when I studied for one year at the history department of Nanjing university.

Due to the artificiality of the HSK6 material which you mentioned, which also includeds learning a huge amount of Chengyu, which are not really that important in spoken Chinese at least, I feel a little annoyed by the preparation necessary to take it, but as a 10 year student of Chinese I just want to get it over with, haha. I guess its an ego thing,  so yeah, I guess in the end I have to agree with you, that ChinesePod is best advised to "Filling up the gap in the dry, barren landscape of real-life spoken Chinese materials." with great, long colloquial conversations reflecting the Chinese thats actually spoken on the streets at the time.

Posted on: Tips on How To Prepare for the HSK

Hi Grace, 

actually I think one of the most helpful things ChinesePod could do would be a series of "Advanced" podcasts which are as similar as possible to the actual TingLi part of the HSK6 in regards to topics, vocabulary used and talking speed. When I tried the HSK6 the last time in like 2014 I got topics like "The anatomy of the brain" or "The Asian financial crisis of 1997" and they were read pretty quick. Totally went over my head at that time.

The other part I found really difficult is when you have to choose from 4 words, for example adjectives, which are very similar in meaning but still each is best used in a different context. I don't know, like 美好， 美满， 美妙 and 华美。Or 妙好，精妙， 巧妙 and 妙善。I guess those are not totally accurate examples as I just come up with it, but you get what I mean. You have 4 two syllable words, were one character is the same and the difference of meaning is very nuanced.

Maybe you could do some advanced 请问 podcasts on how to use very similar words correctly according to context.

Best regards, 

Ken

Posted on: Five ways of seeing: 看、见、看见、看到、看出

Hi Grace, 

actually I think one of the most helpful things ChinesePod could do would be a series of "Advanced" podcasts which are as similar as possible to the actual TingLi part of the HSK6 in regards to topics, vocabulary used and talking speed. When I tried the HSK6 the last time in like 2014 I got topics like "The anatomy of the brain" or "The Asian financial crisis of 1997" and they were read pretty quick. Totally went over my head at that time.

The other part I found really difficult is when you have to choose from 4 words, for example adjectives, which are very similar in meaning but still each is best used in a different context. I don't know, like 美好， 美满， 美妙 and 华美。Or 妙好，精妙， 巧妙 and 妙善。I guess those are not totally accurate examples as I just come up with it, but you get what I mean. You have 4 two syllable words, were one character is the same and the difference of meaning is very nuanced.

Maybe you could do some advanced 请问 podcasts on how to use very similar words correctly according to context.

Best regards, 

Ken

Posted on: Tips on How To Prepare for the HSK

It would be really great if ChinesePod would develop a special "HSK6 Preperation" playlist!

Posted on: Five ways of seeing: 看、见、看见、看到、看出

It would be really great if ChinesePod would develop a special "HSK6 Preperation" playlist!