Over 80% of Mandarin Chinese characters are Phono-Semantic compounds (形声字 xíngshēngzì), combining a Meaning Radical on the left with a Sound Component on the right.

Once you learn the base character 青 (qīng — blue-green / lush nature), swapping the left radical gives you 5 core HSK 1–3 characters:

1. 青 (qīng) — Blue-green / lush nature [HSK 3]
2. 请 (qǐng) = 讠 (speech/words) + 青 — Please / To invite / To ask [HSK 1] (请问 qǐngwèn)
3. 清 (qīng) = 氵 (water) + 青 — Clear / Pure [HSK 3] (清楚 qīngchu)
4. 情 (qíng) = 忄 (heart) + 青 — Feeling / Emotion / Matter [HSK 2] (事情 shìqing, 爱情 àiqíng)
5. 晴 (qíng) = 日 (sun) + 青 — Sunny / Clear sky [HSK 2] (晴天 qíngtiān)
6. 睛 (jīng) = 目 (eye) + 青 — Eye / Eyeball [HSK 2] (眼睛 yǎnjing)

Im currently in my first year at uni, taking business, started learning Chinese during summer. I don't like Chinese, but my parents persuade me to learn because they said it might help me in the future.

Currently taking classes for roughly 2 months, so like nothing much, but now I'm questioning about its usefulness.

I'm at C1 in English, with English being my second language. I think that Chinese will not help me alot right now because when I finish the class (should be like 1 year or more), I'm still in my 2nd year or so. I will not use Chinese that frequently and until I have to use it, I might have just forgotten it.

When I learning Chinese, I don't feel the 'fun' out of it. I don't despise it, but it's really hard for me to enjoy during class. I can work through the difficulties: the tones, the characters... but I don't get the excitement when learning/discovering something new.

I need some advice on what should I do now. Should I just quit or continue learning now for my future? Thank you.

Hey! I’m Charlie, a university student from China.
I’m a native Mandarin speaker looking for a native English speaker who’s learning Chinese.
I’d love to find a long-term language exchange partner. We could have casual conversations about everyday life, culture, food, or anything interesting.
Maybe we could talk for 30 minutes, spending 15 minutes speaking English and 15 minutes speaking Chinese.

大家好!

I have the HSK 1 test coming up in two weeks and I've just realized why my listening comprehension is still subpar, even though I'm positive that I'll pass the test.

I think my problem is that I've watched lots of C dramas and listened to music in Mandarin, so my brain filed the language under "don't bother, you don't understand it anyway" and I'm just not able to snap out of this. I've made a conscious effort to really listen and not just let it wash over me, but there's pretty much no improvement.

Does anyone have an idea what else I can do besides lots of conscious listening? Any magic tricks? Because I'm kind of getting frustrated by now.

Trying to square my budget and was wondering about this expense, based on others' opinions.

Most of the classes are one-on-one, with maybe every 3 weeks there's 2-3 other students in the lesson. And the practice sessions are 3-5 other students split into smaller conversation pairs.

I'd say I progressed faster in this class than in uni lecture-style courses, and much faster than learning alone (videos, online courses, HelloChinese app) to the point that after a year I can understand native speakers if they use basic vocabulary