A More Holistic Approach To Learning Chinese

[RichS]

Hey all.

So I just took my HSK 6. On all the dozens of practice tests I'd done the listening was always the bit I passed without any problem, yet I dunno if its cos my Chinese brain hadn't woken up or that they made the listening harder, but I really don't think I passed the listening section.

 

Anyway, point being now I'm there or there abouts with HSK 6, I thought it might be useful to try a different tactic to learning Chinese, rather than "studying" trying to immerse myself in different forms of media, trying different things, maybe my brain will adapt better to.

 

So heres my list of things I'd like to do.

 

Read Chinese Novels: I'm currently reading 余华's 兄弟, and I plan on buying 白话文 versions of the 四大名书. But other suggestions would be appreciated.

Learn Some Chinese Songs: I remember a while ago I had an app that would display lyrics of songs as the song played, does anyone have app recommendations or band recommendations? Again, lyric heavy songs would be good, I'd love some Chinese hip hop.

Play Video Games in Chinese: Again talking heavy would be good, or possibly games with no talking in them..... but multiplayer competitive or cooperative games where you can chat to Chinese people whilst you play them.

Watch Chinese News Reports: Obviously CCTV good for this, any other suggestions?

Launch a Chinese Audio Blog: What platforms would be good for this?

Any other ideas? Thanks for all the help.

 

[Geiko]

4 hours ago, RichS said:

On all the dozens of practice tests I'd done the listening was always the bit I passed without any problem, yet I dunno if its cos my Chinese brain hadn't woken up or that they made the listening harder, but I really don't think I passed the listening section.

 

I had the same impression last May, when I also took HSK 6. I had used three different mock test books, and they were significantly easier in general. See this post for a comparison of the difficulty of the three books I used: https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/20933-taking-the-hsk-already-taken-it-report-in-here/?do=findComment&comment=420170

 

In the book with the most mock tests (ten) I scored an average of 75.4%, whereas on the real exam I only got 44 points, even lower than two years ago, when I also failed HSK 6. (Scores here: https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/20933-taking-the-hsk-already-taken-it-report-in-here/?do=findComment&comment=418162 )

 

As you can see, I'm not qualified enough to recommend you anything but the answers of other forum members will be very useful for both of us. 

 

 

[Lu]

5 hours ago, RichS said:

Read Chinese Novels: I'm currently reading 余华's 兄弟, and I plan on buying 白话文 versions of the 四大名书. But other suggestions would be appreciated.

Dig around a bit in the Art & Literature forum, others have asked this question before you and received useful answers.