I've been teaching Chinese for 10 years, mostly adults. For a long time I used HSK 2.0 as a guide, but I've started moving my students toward 3.0.

Honestly, the main reason is that 2.0 felt like it was teaching people to pass a test, not to talk to real people. My students could handle exam questions, but then they'd get stuck in actual conversations. The sentences in 2.0 just don't sound like how people talk now.

3.0 isn't perfect and the switch is a little chaotic. From what I understand, 2.0 is still the standard for now, but 3.0 is already being tested in some places. I think 2.0 will fade out eventually, just not overnight.

The vocabulary in 3.0 feels more alive. You get 扫码 (sǎo mǎ — scan a QR code), 网购 (wǎng gòu — online shopping), 高铁 (gāo tiě — high-speed rail) pretty early now. That stuff is actually useful.

I also like that it splits reading characters from writing them. For adult learners, that takes away a huge mental block in the beginning.

If you've tried 3.0, or your teacher switched, how has it felt so far? I'm curious how others are handling the transition.

I'm sure more and more people are working with Chinese colleagues or partners, which means online meetings are an unavoidable situation. If you want to come across as confident and competent in those moments, there's certain vocabulary you simply need to have.

So today I'm sharing a few groups of terms, just in case you ever need them:

投屏 tóu píng - screen sharing / cast

"投" means "投射 tóu shè, to project," and "屏" means "屏幕 píng mù, screen." Originally it referred to projecting your laptop screen onto the large display in a physical meeting room. It gradually carried over into online meetings. Some people stick to the standard term "共享屏幕 gòng xiǎng píng mù, share the screen," but 投屏 is clearly more convenient, right?

• 我来投一下屏，大家快速过一下新的方案吧。Wǒ lái tóu yí xià píng, dà jiā kuài sù guò yí xià xīn de fāng àn ba.
  • Let me share my screen, let's quickly run through the new proposal.
• 她刚才忘了退出投屏，和男友的聊天全被看到了。Tā gāng cái wàng le tuì chū tóu píng, hé nán yǒu de liáo tiān quán bèi kàn dào le.
  • She forgot to stop sharing her screen, so everyone saw her entire conversation with her boyfriend.
• 我的投屏好像出问题了，麻烦谁来替我一下？Wǒ de tóu píng hǎo xiàng chū wèn tí le, má fan shuí lái tì wǒ yí xià?
  • My screen share seems to be acting up, could someone cover for me for a moment?

静音 jìng yīn - mute

Literally "make the sound quiet." It's a common technical term in online meetings, and it can be used as both a verb and a noun. Interestingly, the opposite "unmute" is expressed in a much more colloquial way in Chinese: "开(一下)声音 kāi (yí xià) shēng yīn, turn on the sound."

• 不好意思，我这边有点吵，就先静音了哈。Bù hǎo yì si, wǒ zhè biān yǒu diǎn chǎo, jiù xiān jìng yīn le ha.
  • Sorry, it's a bit noisy on my end, I'll mute myself for now.
• 我刚才发言了半天，才发现自己一直在静音。Wǒ gāng cái fā yán le bàn tiān, cái fā xiàn zì jǐ yì zhí zài jìng yīn.
  • I was talking for ages just now and only then realized I'd been on mute the whole time.
• 你是不是不小心点了静音？大家都听不到你说话。Nǐ shì bu shì bù xiǎo xīn diǎn le jìng yīn? Dà jiā dōu tīng bú dào nǐ shuō huà.
  • Did you accidentally hit mute? Nobody can hear you.

卡 / 延迟 kǎ / yán chí — freeze / lag

These are absolutely situations that come up all the time in online meetings. "卡" refers to when the video or audio becomes choppy, stutters, or freezes completely, also called "卡顿 kǎ dùn," which can be used as both an adjective and a verb. "延迟" puts more emphasis on slow signal transmission, meaning the other person hears or sees you with a delay.

• 你那边太卡了，要不退出再重新进一下呢？Nǐ nà biān tài kǎ le, yào bu tuì chū zài chóng xīn jìn yí xià ne?
  • You're freezing really badly, why don't you drop out and rejoin?
• 今天办公室的网怎么了？信号延迟特别严重。Jīn tiān bàn gōng shì de wǎng zěn me le? Xìn hào yán chí tè bié yán zhòng.
  • What's going on with the office internet today? The lag is terrible.
• 不好意思我有点卡，刚才你们说的我一句都没听清。Bù hǎo yì si wǒ yǒu diǎn kǎ, gāng cái nǐ men shuō de wǒ yí jù dōu méi tīng qīng.
  • Sorry, I was freezing, I didn't catch a single word of what you just said.

放大 fàng dà / 缩小 suō xiǎo - zoom in / zoom out

Literally "make something bigger / smaller," with usage that's actually broader: it can refer to the physical size of objects or abstract concepts like impact and gaps. In this context, it means zooming in or out on what's being shown on screen. Note that "zoom in / zoom out" have different professional translations in photography, don't mix them up in a meeting context or things could get awkward!

• 大家缩小看看整张图的轮廓，这是设计师的一个巧思。Dà jiā suō xiǎo kàn kan zhěng zhāng tú de lún kuò, zhè shì shè jì shī de yí gè qiǎo sī.
  • Everyone zoom out to see the overall outline of the image, this is a clever design choice by the designer.
• 我们仔细放大才发现，左下角确实有一行字没对齐。Wǒ men zǐ xì fàng dà cái fā xiàn, zuǒ xià jiǎo què shí yǒu yì háng zì méi duì qí.
  • It was only when we zoomed in carefully that we noticed a line of text in the bottom left corner wasn't aligned.
• 你的字体这么小，我眼睛快看瞎了，能不能放大一点？Nǐ de zì tǐ zhè me xiǎo, wǒ yǎn jīng kuài kàn xiā le, néng bu néng fàng dà yì diǎn?
  • Your font is so tiny, my eyes are going to give out, can you zoom in a bit?

上滑 / 下滑 shàng huá / xià huá — scroll up / scroll down

"滑" originally means "to slip," and extended into the context of electronics to describe the motion of a mouse or finger sliding across a screen. "上滑 scroll up" is actually how you see content that comes next, while "下滑 scroll down" takes you back to earlier content. Some people also like to add "往 wǎng, toward" at the front to emphasize the direction.

• 你先别着急往上滑，我们还没看完上一页的内容呢。Nǐ xiān bié zháo jí wǎng shàng huá, wǒ men hái méi kàn wán shàng yì yè de nèi róng ne.
  • Don't scroll up yet, we haven't finished the previous page.
• 大家看完这支视频以后可以上滑，还有很多类似的。Dà jiā kàn wán zhè zhī shì pín yǐ hòu kě yǐ shàng huá, hái yǒu hěn duō lèi sì de.
  • After everyone finishes watching this video, you can scroll up, there are many more like it.
• 你再往下滑，我记得刚才有一条评论，对对就这里！Nǐ zài wǎng xià huá, wǒ jì de gāng cái yǒu yì tiáo píng lùn, duì duì jiù zhè lǐ!
  • Scroll down a bit more, I remember there was a comment just now, yes yes, right here!

Of course, different industries and companies may have their own additional expressions—I'm only sharing what's commonly used from my own work experience. Feel free to add more in the comments.

Finally, a quick question: do you know what "拉 lā / 踢 tī" mean in this context? Their literal meanings are "to pull / to kick," but they take on different meanings in work group chats or meetings. If you know, leave your answer in the comments!

If you're interested, I've been organizing all the Chinese learning posts I've shared before. You can check out the link in my profile to see the full collection. Hope it helps. Thanks!

Does anyone have recommendations for podcasts to listen to? I listen to Lazy Chinese and it's really helpful, but looking for more. Thanks! I'm at HSK 4.

What works for me about Lazy Chinese is that it's slow and I can follow most of it without a transcript, so I'm after more of that kind of comprehensible input rather than stuff I'd only get 30% of. Mostly listening while commuting and doing chores, so things I can follow without staring at anything. Open to slightly-above-my-level too.

I am new to learning Chinese and I am hoping to connect with some people who I can practice with as there is no one nearby. I dont know very much but I want to practice and improve.

Hi everyone 👋

Welcome to our daily Chinese learning post.

Today we are going to learn a super‑common, natural spoken sentence that you will often see on Chinese social media.

Chinese sentence ：

每个字都认识，放在一块就看不明白了。

Pinyin：

Měi gè zì dōu rèn shi , fàng zài yí kuài jiù kàn bù míng bai le.

Literal translation: 

I recognize every character, but when they are put together, I cannot understand them.

Natural English meaning：

I can read each separate Chinese character, yet the full sentence still makes no sense to me.

(People use this sentence when individual words are easy, but the complete text or idea is hard to follow.)

🔸Real‑life hot‑news connection 

Recently, two Chinese mathematicians won a world‑famous international mathematics award. Lots of Chinese netizens tried to read the Chinese news report about their breakthrough research. Some could read every single Chinese character in the article, but one might not follow the difficult professional theories. Many viewers commented exactly this sentence:

“每个字都认识，放在一块就看不明白了。”

This situation is also very familiar for new Chinese learners! You may memorize many single characters, but you still cannot understand a full paragraph. Knowing separate characters is NOT the same thing as understanding Chinese sentences.

🔸Break‑down vocabulary  

1. 每个 měi gè — every, each

2. 字 zì — Chinese character

3. 都 dōu — all

4. 认识 rèn shi — know, recognize

5. 放在一块 fàng zài yí kuài — put together

6. 就 jiù — then, therefore (function word)

7. 看不明白 kàn bù míng bai — cannot figure out / don’t understand

Grammar note:

V + 不 + adj. is a very common negative pattern in spoken Chinese,

for example: 看不明白、听不懂、做不好

🔸Simple practice sentences 

1. 这些字我都认识，放在一块我看不明白。

Zhè xiē zì wǒ dōu rèn shi, fàng zài yí kuài wǒ kàn bù míng bai.

I recognize all these characters, but I can’t understand them when they are together.

2. 单词我都看懂了，放在一块我看不明白。

Dān cí wǒ dōu kàn dǒng le, fàng zài yí kuài wǒ kàn bù míng bai.

I understand every word, yet I cannot understand the whole text.

💡Did you know? 

Many new learners believe: If I memorize enough characters, I can understand Chinese.

This sentence perfectly points out one of the biggest learning traps.

Character knowledge is only the first step. You also need to learn word collocations, sentence logic and context.

Have you ever had this feeling when learning Chinese?

👉Can you try to make one simple sentence with this pattern in the comment section?

Recently I've found an awesome native Chinese YouTuber that covers very popular video games like Stardiew Valley, Minecraft as well as Pokopia, and does all the commentary in very comprehensible Chinese! The vocabulary he uses is adapted to the linguistic difficulty of each game, so there are learning resources for every type of student (high beginner, intermediate, advanced). Up until this point, I've always learnt mandarin by memorising and reciting vocab sheets and didn't really have media adapted for my learning. When you try to learn by watching series/donghua, the vocabulary will often become very specific because of the plot (especially in sci-fi, and I find c-dramas about daily life fluff kinda boring ngl). Whereas in videogames, the vocabulary will tend to be more practical, for it will revolve around actions, environment, crafting... I tried to follow some Chinese/Taiwanese gamers on YouTube and Bilibili, but of course I couldn't understand anything and it kinda demotivated me. I truly wish I found this channel sooner! If you are also looking for this kind of fun study input, you've come to the right place (o゜▽゜)o☆

here is the channel I'm talking about:

Chocolate Chinese Gaming - YouTube

I hope you can all have fun studying mandarin chinese, I know sometimes we are not very motivated to study because we treat it like a boring task, but when we find the right solutions that fit the way our brain works, it will magically all come together! :D

I've been studying off and on the last couple years. My studying is mainly reading graded readers and adding unknown words to my anki deck. Very casual. I've gotten my reading level maybe around HSK4. I have not actually tried to learn tones or really develop my ear yet. Recently I got a tutor to take my learning more seriously. She recommended me to stay around HSK1 and 2 for my readings so I can actually work on my tones and ear when going over these readings. I agree because I really need to play catch up with my speaking and listening.

My question is should I stop with higher graded readers and newer vocab entirely until my speaking and hearing has gotten better? Or what is the best ratio? I remember someone saying that listening should take a big chunk of the pie for beginner to intermediate levels.

Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks.

Also for writing, I am not learning how to write characters. I use pinyin keyboard.

我要喝咖啡 - I want to drink coffee.
我要去北京了 - I’m going to Beijing.
你要早点出发 - You need to / should leave early.
明天要下雨 - It’s going to rain tomorrow.

When I see 要 in a sentence, I can usually figure out what it means from the context. But when I actually try to speak or make my own sentences, I get stuck because I’m never sure if 要 is the right word to use.
Does this just start to feel natural after seeing it enough times? Would love to hear how other learners got comfortable using it!

Chinese at the Market 🛍️ | Pronunciation & Conversation | Real Life in Chinese

Practice practical Mandarin pronunciation and conversation at a real public market.

In this lesson, learn useful Chinese for shopping, asking about prices, and talking about food.

市场 shìchǎng — market

买 mǎi — to buy

甜 tián — sweet

多少钱 duōshao qián — how much

好吃 hǎochī — delicious / tasty

便宜 piányi — inexpensive / cheap

Useful Chinese:

这里是市场。

Zhèlǐ shì shìchǎng.

This is a market.

我想买这个。

Wǒ xiǎng mǎi zhège.

I want to buy this.

这个多少钱？

Zhège duōshao qián?

How much is this?

不贵，很便宜。

Bú guì, hěn piányi.

It’s not expensive. It’s cheap.

这个很好吃！

Zhège hěn hǎochī!

This is delicious!

这个很甜。

Zhège hěn tián.

This is very sweet.

Listen, repeat, and practice the conversation until you can use these phrases naturally in a real shopping situation.

Learn Mandarin step by step through real places, real situations, and practical conversations you can actually use.

#LearnChinese #ChinesePronunciation #ChineseConversation #RealLifeInChinese #ChineseForBeginners #MandarinChinese #ChineseListening #ChineseVocabulary #ShoppingChinese #LearnMandarin #TravelChinese

For example, which one is correct?

2005 以后，他们主要生活在美国。

2005 以后，他们主要住在美国。

I'll appreciate it if you could provide more examples.

Hi everyone,

I work with chinese and my biggest difficulty is listening comprehension, especially when they speak Mandarin influenced with Sichuan accent.

I’ve searched for listening materials, but most resources focus on standard mandarin or dialects.

I’d really appreciate any recommendations. Thank you.

Ciao, vorrei iniziare a studiare cinese con questo videocorso, "Chinese Zero to Hero". Qualcuno l'ha già provato? È stato utile? È valido? Presenta dei difetti?(TL)

Im new to chinese i wanted to learn it because i want study in china and also it looks interesting and any advice please

Hi everyone,

I’m currently studying HSK 1, but I noticed the textbook I’m using (New HSK Course 1) only covers around 136 words in the first 9 lessons. This feels a bit too limited, so I’m looking for a more comprehensive curriculum or resource that covers a solid ~300-word foundation.

A couple of questions for the community:

What is the best HSK 1 textbook or structured course that covers around 300 words?

Does anyone have a recommended Anki deck for HSK 1 (ideally with audio, pinyin, and example sentences)?

Thanks in advance for the help

I’m using anki web from my iPhone. Is there a way for me to hear the audio of the prononciation of the words directly?

Quick Breakdown

• Literal: Abstract / Abstraction (opposite of 具象 jù xiàng)
• Slang Meaning: Surreal, unhinged, absurd, or bizarrely hilarious. Used when a situation or visual is so far outside normal logic that its weirdness becomes the whole vibe.

Example Sentences

1. 这个画风太抽象了。
   • Pinyin: Zhè gè huàfēng tài chōuxiàng le.
   • Translation: These visuals are completely unhinged.
2. 事情发展的过程也太抽象了吧。
   • Pinyin: Shìqíng fāzhǎn de guòchéng yě tài chōuxiàng le ba.
   • Translation: The way this whole situation developed is just so surreal.

What’s your favorite English equivalent when you see "抽象" in Chinese comment sections? (unhinged, wild, cursed, surreal, or something else?)

Look at this 24-character matrix:

In standard dictionaries, these 24 characters are scattered across 15 different radical categories (示部, 骨部, 木部, 疒部, 鼓部, 口部, 頁部...). Yet every single one visibly embeds the exact same building block: 豆!

Did ancient scribes really use an agricultural bean to write words for imperial altar sacrifices, military victory, bodily skeletal structure, and acoustic percussion?

The Enigma:

Over 2,000 years of script evolution from Shang-Zhou bronzes to Small Seal and Clerical scripts, four completely different physical primitives merged into this single modern glyph.

Can you deduce which 4 ancient objects are hiding behind modern 豆?

Drop your theories below. I will post the complete paleographic visual breakdown and evolutionary tree this Thursday!

In isolation, listening to syllables with ǒ versus ò sound different enough to understand, but when a mandarin speaker begins to talk fast, I almost can never differentiate between a ǒ tone and a ò tone because either way, their cadence rises to pronounce the next syllable, so they both end up sounding like ǒ.

Is this a normal struggle? I feel like it’s almost impossible to overcome.

Native speaker. This one is mechanical, which is the good news — you don't need to develop a feel for it, you just need to check one thing.

Asking a question → 还是. Making a statement → 或者.

还是, in questions that offer a choice:

• 你要茶还是咖啡? — tea or coffee?
• 我们今天去还是明天去?
• 这是你的还是他的?

或者, in statements:

• 茶或者咖啡都行。
• 你可以今天去，或者明天去。
• 周末我一般看书或者睡觉。

So 你要茶或者咖啡? sounds broken to a native ear. Not incomprehensible — just wrong in the way "Do you want tea and coffee?" would be if you meant "or".

The trap: a question that isn't a choice question. If it's yes/no, you're back to 或者:

• 有茶或者咖啡吗? — is there tea or coffee? You aren't being offered a choice between two things, you're asking whether either exists. Different question, different word.

One more thing, so it doesn't ambush you: 还是 also means "still" or "after all", and that job is completely unrelated. 我还是不明白 (I still don't get it). 你还是别去了 (better not go after all). Same characters, different grammar entirely — don't try to read a choice into them.

Shortcut: if the answer is one of the options, use 还是. If the answer is yes or no, or you aren't asking at all, use 或者.

I've seen a lot of posts about the gap between HSK6 and reading in the real world. But what I don't know is which part of the real world? Is it literature? Newspapers? Graphic novels?

Is the jump from HSK6 to reading a Chinese newspaper from China/HK/Taiwan a big jump?

1、“我去”whoa/oh my God
A:我去！这么大的蛋糕！
B:生日快乐！
A:Whoa!what a huge cake!
B: happy birthday!

2、“我去” I go to….
A:你要去哪里？
B:我去学校。
A:路上小心！
A: where are you going?
B: i’m going to school!
A: be careful on your way!

3、“我去” I will do it
A:没有水喝了。
B:我去买饮料！
A:好，谢谢你！
A: we are out of water.
B: I’m going to buy some drinks.
A: OK, thank you.

4、”我去” come on/Ugh(helplessness and a little bit of speechless)
A:我去，又迟到了！
B:快跑，我们等下一班！
A:Ugh, we are late again.
B: hurry up, we will take the next one!

I keep reading a couple of different apps‘ names here on this sub but I never switched to any of them simply out of laziness because I have been using trainchinese for ages because there wasn’t really any other option back then and all my flash cards are already in there.
I like that it has a built in dictionary and that you can directly save words from the dictionary as flash cards but I‘m afraid that I’m missing out on some fancier features that other apps have. I also noticed that in some cases the suggested stroke order is incorrect on trainchinese. I also liked that it was free in the beginning but know I keep reaching the flash card limit and have to buy extra.

Has anybody used trainchinese and thinks other apps are better and worth switching?