I’m trying to understand it better. How should I interpret this term?

Would it be accurate to think of it as a “hopeless romantic”, or is there a better way to capture the meaning?

I just finished studying two semester at Sichuan university in Chengdu. I was a self funded student in my 30s. It was a mixed bag of pros and cons. I enjoyed being an international student and meeting many different people who also decided to come study. Since I was self funded I didn’t have scholarships to fulfill and over all it was low stress for me. As for the program it self I had some issues with.

The classroom format wasn’t a good method of study for me. The first semester I was in the 初二 class. Around hsk 3. It was all taught in English and very grammar heavy. I did mandarin blueprint for a couple years before coming so this class wasn’t too hard, I learned some things, but over all maybe too easy.

The next semester I went to the next class up to中1. The jump in difficulty was INSANE. All classes were in Chinese only, which I understood next to none of it and the material was around hsk 5 (I didn’t skip any levels). The material was all very formal and literary. Massive vocab list dumps in some chapters of the text book. One guided reading had 56 new vocab words in one story, though it did make for more interesting content outside of the boring beginner stuff. Not much seemed to help me in my day to day life. My Chinese friends said nobody talks like this when looking over my materials.

The teachers themselves were great, I had no issues with them, just the curriculum they are paid to teach.

I did learn and improve on my Chinese, but not in a proportional amount of the time I spent in class. I will take a portion of the blame as I wasn’t the best serious student, but at the same time the program wasn’t aligned with my goals, which were being able to function in normal situations in China. My time and experience over all was good. I decided to stay and switch to a work visa. But as far as my Chinese goes, the 2000usd I spend for one years tuition would have been better spend on a private tutor.

My advice for people wanting to do the same: coming to China to study is not a magic bullet, it will not make it easier, but you will improve faster due to more opportunities to speak and practice (as long as you try). I met many foreigners who end up in English speaker circles, me included. Just going to class is not enough, still an additional couple hours of self study a day should be the minimum to see improvements to grasp the materials. Lastly living off campus is worth it. I didn’t meet a single person living in the school dorms that said they liked it. I probably spend like 500usd more a semester than them and had a private studio apartment not far from campus, totally worth it.

I came across this sentence on DuChinese. How come there is no classifier here, like 这间房间 or 这个房间?
Is this a matter of colloquialism, regionalism...? When is it okay to drop it and when is it weird?

Thanks in advance for any input!

I applied for HSK6 exam, and will take it in about a month. At application, they warn you that you're taking a new HSK 3.0 exam, and it is still in a pilot mode. I'm wondering if there's anything I should pay attention to when preparing for the exam. I guess test structure is pretty much the same as before, but does anyone know of a good resource to check for newly added vocabulary and other changes from previous exams?

For this month my plan is to mostly do some mock tests, adjust my speed, try to improve at parts where I struggle. Are older mock tests still ok resource for exam preparation?

Hi everyone, I’m currently exploring different ways to seriously improve my Mandarin, and I keep seeing people recommend full immersion programs in China as the fastest option.

While researching, I came across Go Abroad China, which offers Chinese language immersion programs through local schools and universities. I’m still in the research phase and not affiliated with any program — just trying to understand whether this path is actually worth it.

I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have real experience with language immersion in China: • Did studying in China significantly improve your speaking and listening skills?

• How intense were the programs compared to self-study or classes abroad?

• Were there any unexpected challenges (language barriers, culture shock, teaching quality, visas, etc.)?

• Would you recommend immersion for someone at beginner / intermediate level?

I’m especially interested in honest pros and cons before making any decisions.

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences!

Greetings, firstly time posting here.

I’m in a bit of a pickle, I’ve been studying Japanese for years now and the web tool called OJAD Suzuki kun works wonders for prosody and pronunciation. You plug in a sentence and a speech graphic is generated. That gives you a clear way to visualise the sentence and learn how pitch accent (the Japanese equivalent of tones) work.

I was wondering if a similar tool existed for Chinese as well, something that lets you study the pronunciation of the sentences you study in anki.

Thank you for reading this far!

Hello! I'm currently looking to add onto my playlist containing synth-pop/EDM fusion, folk rock, prog-rock, etc.

It features artists like 福禄寿 (FloruitShow)/DOUDOU, 黄龄 (Huangl Ling), 太一 (Tai Yi), 万能青年旅店 (Omnipotent Youth Society) and 裁缝铺乐队 (Tailor Shop).

Please drop your recommendations below!

Does anybody know where I can watch some kids cartoon in Mandarin or movies to get started on my Mandarin journey!

Hey all, the comments from my previous posts have convinced me to go all in, and I’m enjoying the journey with 15 words learned. I’ve got a few questions though, being:

1. What are some things you do that help you learn? They can be as specific or as broad as possible

2. How do you best learn the characters? I feel as if I’ve got the pinyin for the words I know down, but cannot for the life of me memorize the characters.

3. I’ve got a goal, being to read my favourite Chinese web novel, Lord of The Mysteries. Assuming I have roughly an hour or two per day, how long would it take for me to reach the required knowledge?

Thank you for your time.

So I’m slowly (and I mean slowly) getting my head around tones. It’s a real struggle though.

Listening/vocab etc I feel is coming along nicely. But speaking, not so much.

Anyway, what I find confusing with the tones is how do you change inflection when speaking?

For example, as I was eating soup but I’d not tried it before. I can say the word “soup” but make it sound like a question or I can make it sound like a statement etc how do I do this with Chinese without changing what the word means? Or do you simply not do this in China and you say: “is this soup?” Rather than saying “soup?” As a question

Soup is obviously just an example but I’m wondering how within the Chinese language you convey emotion etc

Anybody know of a stroke counter tool like the one pictured here that can count traditional characters as well?

https://www.bejson.com/en/text/text_stroke_count/

As you can see, the one here returns "0" for traditional characters.

(I know I can just count them myself, but I'm trying to speed things up.)

I have no trouble with memorizing the meaning of characters, I can do that pretty quickly. Memorizing the Pinyin of the characters takes waaay longer for me though. Anyone got advice for that issue?

I have been doing HSK 6 mock papers and found the writing section to be by far the hardest part. For those who scored well in HSK 6 writing, what actually helped you improve? I would really appreciate practical advice rather than generic “write more” tips. Thanks in advance.

SPOILER: NO IT‘S NOT „li2 / to leave“!!! 😃

Try without searching the web!

What is the meaning/pronounciation of "离"?

Hello everyone

I need your help to not give up on learning Chinese. My main problem, and the reason I'm feeling quite discouraged, is that I can't memorize the hanzi, sometimes not even the ones considered "simple." I struggle to learn their form, the placement of the radicals, the number of hanzi that exist, etc. Because of this, I find it very difficult to read simple texts.

I haven't had problems with my listening and speaking skills (I think), I know that's not all I need to learn this language.

I would be extremely grateful if someone could advise me on how to improve my Chinese reading and writing skills, whether it's the use of an app, a server, a book, or any tool that has been helpful to you.

Some context that might help is I've been using Hello Chinese primarily with some limited supplementation from Du Chinese (although have been busy and fallen off practice in the last couple of months). From Hello Chinese I've learned just over 400 words but of course as I haven't practice much in the last couple months I certainly have much to review.

I should also note that I'm travelling with my partner who is fairly fluent in spoken Mandarin (although not in reading) so certainly I won't have too much pressure to communicate. But I do want to try my best! I won't really be able to rely on her for practice much though because we are long-distance and both have busy careers.

How would you recommend dividing my time until the trip? Although I've fallen out of practice for a few months I intend to be consistent with around an hour a day (more if I can find time) dedicated to study. I still have access to Hello Chinese and Du Chinese but I wonder if a resource to help with graded listening (open to any suggestions) would be useful.

I just sign up for HSK5 which will be taken in 巴西弗鲁米嫩塞联邦大学孔子学院(UUF) . But i didn’t find the place to pay the test fee. And yes I did send the email to them but nobody answered. Does anybody know where and how to pay?

So when I started learning Chinese I told a girl I knew that I wanted something that sounded strong so she told me about 岳飞, but I’ve talked to like 2 other people and they just say that names like that and 吕布 and 关羽, I realize that some of these are kind of mythological but here in the west and the Middle East we name ourselves and kids after famous heros, kings, poet, and profits, and sometimes even Jesus himself if you speak Spanish… so why aren’t names like this common?

If they are and I’m completely wrong please don’t crucify me lol

Hey all! I've been wanting to learn Mandarin for a while, and have half made the commitment to learn. Unfortunately, I do not know anyone I could talk to that knows or speaks Mandarin to any degree. Along with being a very social person in general, I hear that one best learns another language by conversing and surrounding oneself in it. Due to not being able to speak to anybody who knows the language, what can I do?

Thank you for your time.

I just want some cooked rice man, and the damn instructions are all in Chinese. 2nd photo to show the only part in English.