From HSK2 to HSK3

Just notes about my Chinese learning journey

[tio-studies-mandarin]

Who knows what the coming day will bring

The vocab for 听话的狗

🦁 听话 do what other say, obedient

🐶 狗 dog. 只狗 a dog. 只 item (for animals)

🦁 老板 boss, here the shop owner

🦁 怎么 how, why

🦁 卖 sell

🦁 千 thousand

🦁 贵 expensive

🦁 非常 very, extremely

🦁 聪明 intelligent, clever

🦁 钱 money

🦁 问题 question

🦁 最 the most

🦁重要 important

🐼 那你就买对的了！ Then you are buying the right one!

🐼 我买出去十几次了 I have sold it several times already (between 10 and 20 times).

🦁 每次 everytime

🦁 能 be able

🦁 自己 himself, on its own

🦁 回家 return home

[tio-studies-mandarin]

Today was so sad day. I should met my language partners, but it was cancelled. It was nobody's fault, but it is sad either way.

Continue with the wokab

司机 driver (of the bus in this text)

听 hear

生气 angry

大声 loud voice

说道 say (before quated text)

教 teach

孩子 child

会不会当爸爸啊 do you know how to be a father?

怎么能教孩子大人呢？how can you teach a child to beat people?

看看..., 又看看 ... looked at .... looked again at...

打篮球 basketball

If you need any help to read the story please ask!

[tio-studies-mandarin]

Have night watch, have time

Wokab for humour texts

🦁 打 kick, hit, knock

🦁 公车 （short for 公共汽车) public transport, bus

🦁 一边...，一边... doing two things simultaneously

🦁 上车 coming to the bus (on the bus)

🦁 你都那么大了 you are SO old (big) already

🦁 还 yet

🦁 不过 do not have an experience, here 'cannot do'

🦁 ...的时候 at this time

🦁 能 be able to

TBC!

[tio-studies-mandarin]

I did today a good job of reading one long text! Too tired to post about it, so here you are with a bit of humour

And one more!

[tio-studies-mandarin]

18.07.2021 中天

Time! We never have it, so I decided to make a post about it.

时候 is the way one can express when smth has happened

Here are some grammar about it

时间 is a standard way to ask whether smb has (free) time or has not

Now I hope I will remember difference between 时候 and 时间！

Meanwhile I changed my home for next several months and my life is still extremely chaotic

[tio-studies-mandarin]

Wed. 14.07.2021

I did not post anything because the whole life is being weird. On Saturday I am moving in a new place for a while and the whole apartment is a mess. Anyway I do a bit of Chinese every day and I even found two Chinese girls willing to help me. We met once (online). I knew it would be awkward and it was, but I am planning to continue anyway. My Chinese is poor and not enough for any conversation, but I decided to prepare each time a short story that we can discuss together.

Story for the next time I will take from my learning app

张笑喜欢旅游，下个星期二是她十八岁的生日。她要和朋友一起去北京玩儿。她们住的离北京很远，所以她们得坐飞机。这是她第一次和朋友出去旅游，她很高兴。她希望星期二快点到。

It is, indeed, a very short text. But I have problems with some sentences, even I know each word, to understand the meaning is problematic.

First difficult place is 离

Second difficult place is 得

The app has a lesson about this character, but I think the meaning in the story is different, so I would need to ask my learning partners about it.

So I got help from my friend: in this context 得（dei3）has a meaning have to

🐼 我得去学校：i have to (or must) go to school

得 in this structure is placed directly before the verb

The app has this story with possibility to see colored tones and Pinyin, I can also turn it off))

I hope my studying with girls would continue for some time!

[tio-studies-mandarin]

Mon 05-07-2021 morning

Today portion of phonetic about ü sound in chinese

We can find it in

🦄 nü, lü

女，绿 lü4 green

We should read them also with ü, because j,q,x do not exist with u sound.

🦄 ju qu xu

根据 (gēn jù) according to，去，必须 (bì xū) to have to, must

yu is also ü, so be careful 😊

🦄 yue

月

🦄 yuan

远 (yuan3), 服务员 (fúwùyuán), 医院，公园 （gōng yuán) park, 元

🦄 yun

云 (yún) cloud，运动

Let's talk about tone change for 一 character

When it is on its own it is

🦎 一 1 tone

星期一

When it is in a pair it

🦎 changes to yì before 1,2,3

一天

一年

一百

🦎 changes to yí before 4

一共

一个

[tio-studies-mandarin]

Today character is 过

I encountered the sentence

🐼 你们家谁去过中国?

and didn't get it from the first glance, so I collected some grammar about 过

And some more examples

🐼 你过得怎么样?

🐼 今天过新年,大家都来

🐼 我要过马路

🐼 你已经来过中国几次了?

[tio-studies-mandarin]

03.07.21

Today I tried a HSKK1 exam

The first part of the exam is the task to repeat some sentences.

Here are sentences I couldn't understand from the first glance

🐼 我坐火车去

🐼 雪下得真大

🐼 他比我大 5 岁。

🐼 那本书我看完了。

The second part of the exam is to answer some questions like

🐼 这个月有多少天？

The last part of the exam is to tell some more, answering the question like

每天睡觉前，你会做些什么？

I tried my best and after the help of native speaker I got

如果天气好，我在外面做运动。后面我工作一会儿，吃晚饭， 看一会儿书。睡觉前洗澡。 晚上十点，我和我的丈夫一起睡觉。

The end.

[tio-studies-mandarin]

我有事情对你说。

事情 shìqing thing

I am so sad today. I got an interview to check my level before entering the suitable study course. I just can't study only on my own and wanted smhow contact with people.

Myself I estimate me as hsk2 but not confident. My speaking is by bad as well as listening. As logical.

Teacher told me I should start from the beginning, maybe skipping phonetic part. I am sooooo sad. And this is only because I didn't recognize her 忙 pronunciation and forgot some words from the beginning of the book (but not from the hsk1 or hsk2 list like 'mathematic').

I am a bit frustrated with this conversation. I am in doubts about taking the course. Maybe I should take it and be the best on the course, at least I would polish my basics. AGAIN....

I can think the whole month.

Meanwhile I try to do my best on my own.

Discovered in examples the sentence 我喜欢坐着。 Because I myself do not like sitting, I tried to build a similar sentence 我不喜欢坐着，我喜欢跑步跑着。But my Chinese friend told me it sounds strange, he suggested 我不喜欢坐着，我喜欢起来走一走。I am a bit confused with the meaning, I like stand up and walk a bit?... Because 起来 is stand up, and 走一走 walk a bit.

After dinner sit awhile ; after supper walk a mile .

午饭后歇一歇，晚饭后走一走。

[tio-studies-mandarin]

I finally got a very simple idea to actually use words I know. Here is my short story to use 运动.

今天天气很好，我可能去跑步。我在家，不出门。我想做运动，不能做，我生病了，我要躺在床上，睡觉。

躺 tǎng (to lie) is a new word for me)

The story is not true, I am ok, but really sleepy.

[tio-studies-mandarin]

I do not really activity search for a language exchange partner, but if I would do, this would be my inviting proposal

你好，我叫Dina。 我31岁。我在大学工作。我有一个女儿。我的女儿一月大。所以现在我在家，不工作。

我学习了两年汉语。我认识300个字左右，我可以说一点儿汉语，但是我的汉语不好。我觉得你可以帮助我，我帮助你。我们可以一起学习！

If I can describe my dream partner: he or she learns Russian (my mother tongue) or want to learn basics of English or German. I can prepare some sentences to speak beforehand and it would be audio massages in WhatsApp or WeChat because for obvious reasons I do not have time for real meetings now. I never know when I have my next free 5/15/50 minutes. For example it could be 4 o'clock in the morning 😁

[hanzillion]

春 = chūn = Spring

新春快乐！Happy New Year, everyone!

Spring Festival 春节 (chūnjié) was just a few weeks ago, and I confess I cried a little watching the CCTV gala 央视春晚 (yāngshì chūnwǎn)... though I'm not even sure why!

Predictably, many words with 春 are very descriptive of spring, like the season itself 春季 (chūn jì), spring fever 春困 (chūn kùn) or even spring rolls 春卷 (chūn juǎn)!

And because spring is synonym with love, some words with 春 are also related to sex or love, like aphrodisiac 春药 (chūnyào) or puberty 青春期 (qīngchūnqí), literally, the youthful period. As for chengyu's, I like this one: 青春不再 (qīngchūn bù zài). Your youth won't return, so one must make the most of their opportunities. I hope you can grab yours and have a good year of the Ox!

PS - What other words do you know with 春? 😊

[tio-studies-mandarin]

Some sentences frome my favorite Chinese learning app Chinesimple. Right now I polish my hsk 2 level.

🐼 你到底在干什么? What the hell are you doing? 底 di3 bottom 到底 actually

🐼 我想向你借一本书。I want to borrow a book from you. 向 xiàng towards 借 jiè to borrow

🐼 不要往桌子上放东西。Don't put things on the table. 往 wăng towards 放 fàng to let go

There is another game to distinguish between simplified and traditional characters. I find this one very funny. 'Big' transformation indeed 😂

Very helpful to know similar characters

[tio-studies-mandarin]

My new weird idea!

Ok, I have mastered understanding of 15 min audio with simple sentences. To progress in my level it is better for me to write a dictate or choose another audio... But I just playing with my favorite app to master HSK2 level (with various games to learn words AND sentences!) and.....

I watched a famous dorama "The Untamed" https://youtu.be/BfKhREVFLkQ

And I heard that the story is even more interesting, so I wanted to give it a try:

http://www.yuedu88.com/modaozushi/37056.html

Wow! even with BKRS plugin I can understand only some simple sentences, so I will go forward with an English translation

https://mdzstranslation.wordpress.com/2020/05/24/prologue/

Here I will post sentences I can understand and find suitable for me:

大快人心 - rejoice

还能是谁 - who else could it be?

说句公道话 - to be fair

还谈什么别的 - what else is there to say?

这就是！- this is it!

我早就想说了 - I’ve always said

It was not even the first page, but I think it should be easier further. If I would continue, of course)

[tio-studies-mandarin]

I continue with improving my listening. Before I tried different easy techniques. Watching doramas is interesting occupation and it helps in a long run, but this method doesn't work for me. My level is too small and I concentrate on subtitles too much and from the whole episode I can learn only a few words....

In youtube it is easy to find small conversations for my level. I watched them occasionally but now I really want to try not only passive watching, but I work trough.

1) listen to the text several times to understand whether I like the content (list of words is sutable, I should know most of them)

2) write the text down

3) go through the text and note some hard sentences

4) listen to the audio until the full understanding

I am on the step 3. Here are my difficult sentences

🐼 这块手表是送给你的。

I am familiar with the construction 是...的 but need a bit more practice.

Here are examples from my grammar book

他是去年秋天来的。他是从法国来的。这本书是为你买的。我是到他说的，不是到你说的。

I didn't know 块 is a count word for wrist watches))

🐼 祝你生日快乐。

I am not familiar with 祝 （zhù）and 快乐 （kuài lè)

🐼 上个星期五，我是开车去的。

The same grammar

🐼 我写出来，你就知道是哪个字了。

I know here everything but this one is just very complicated and interesting.

🐼 你是从什么时候开始学跳舞的？

Also the same.

Now I am ready to exercise my understanding 💪

[tio-studies-mandarin]

It takes longer than expected, but I am stubborn and just keep going. I finished writing down the text from audio.

Now the next step is to make a recording and listen to it 'during the day'. Actually it means mostly during the dog walking)))