Going deeper: providing resources and examples of a college-level Chinese class

September 20, 2020

Hi, welcome back! This week, I'm providing details and resources that will help greatly if you're preparing to enter study abroad. This will really be helpful if you don't have the option, as I do, to take a variety of lower-level Chinese classes, or you want to give yourself a true immersion experience (as well as quite the challenge!).

The first thing mentioned by Sweet Potato Island was that their class requires you to be able to understand the news in Chinese. Even if you aren't in that class (the level before native), knowing what the news says is going to be a lot different than what you're reading in textbooks, but it can be predictable: There are specific kinds of vocabulary you'll want to know, but unlike generally difficult Chinese literature, there won't be too many difficult idioms. They by no means cover everything you will see, but if you have a solid level of Chinese (HSK 2-3), you can probably understand around 80% (the rest being some difficult words and names). If you've studied this list, names, and HSK 4, you shouldn't have any problem.

Countries of the World

The best place to find news in Chinese would have to be Baidu. Here's the link to an article about the recent TikTok deal.

If you're looking for reading practice, most public libraries have foreign language sections. You'd be surprised at just how hard children's material can be! If you expect to take a proficiency test, or want the opportunity to improve your grammar (if you're struggling a bit like me), textbooks are a great option. Many textbooks, like the HSK Standard Course and Startup Business Chinese (which is important for Chinese class) are available online. If you want speaking practice, the best people for you would typically be ABCs (American Born Chinese). Please don't go up to someone and ask if they know Chinese- there are sites to find people who are native. They usually can't read or write Chinese, but they are very skilled in speaking.

Thanks for checking this out, and I will probably be posting sometime towards the end of this week or next week. 明周見/见！