2025 HSK test dates released:https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/O--1HiVqG5iFn5QTPKijeQ

My son has just switched from iPhone to Andriod (Samsung) and can't find many of his favourite apps.   He's used my wife's Chinese iTunes account up until now on the iPhone, but as Google Play doesn't work in China there's no point using a VPN for it. We tried using a VPN to Taiwan & Singapore (my personal VPN is offline right now) and logging in to the Galaxy Store, but it immediately detects that we're in Zürich even without the SIM card.   There surely must be some 老外 with Android phones Samsungs even that they bought overseas and want to use the local apps in China. How did you download them?

Hi there, I have a problem.I am creating account in CSC scholarship, while creating account there is a requirement,they want a validation code but I don't know concerning, could you please help me...

There were around 500 test takers all over the world.https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/oOhPNzUMp2Va0sC50wh2SQ

I was watching snooker last night, and a discussion about the pronunciation of Xiao Guodong started. ( 肖国栋)  The short exchange here was about his family name, but in the show, I noticed they pronounce guo as gu - but that's an aside...   A native speaker said I and someone else were wrong with the pronunciation. What's your take on it?    

I'm looking for the textbook (and the audio): 社會大學  Speech Series: Real World, used at ICLP in Taiwan. If someone could help me, it would be great!        

Actually I‘m using a mobility scooter and lot a wheelchair, but the same rules apply when it comes to the battery.   So on China Eastern Airlines one is allowed one battery up to 300 WH for mobility aids. All other batteries must not exceed 100 WH.   Today I called 12306 to ask about advanced notification of the mobility scooter before booking a high Speed train to Hangzhou. She told me that this would be only possible ig my battery didn‘t exceed the 100 WH. I am pretty sure, that she didn‘t realize that other rules apply for mobility aids. Then again, I don‘t want to go to the train station without any confirmation about the battery.   Does anyone have experiences with Electric mobility aids on Chinese Highspeed trains or has seen at least an Electric Wheelchair on a train. I just can‘t believe that they wouldn‘g let anyone in an Electric wheelchair board.

I really like Du Chinese, so was hoping The Chairman's Bao offered a similar reading tool.   But in my free version, I noticed two issues: (1) the audio was playing, but the text wasn't being highlighted to indicate which characters were being read and (2) it wasn't giving new articles daily, as I expect from a news site.   Over the several days I tried it, I never saw any new content appear. It also didn't appear to have any coverage of current events, world news, or even China news, just short articles about things like "Some pandas did something cute" or "someone broke a world record", kind of things that might be filler in a newspaper, not a headline.   I'm wondering if my experience was just limited by the fact I didn't have a paid account? Do they have updated news article daily?

大家好, longtime lurker first time poster!   I’m flying back home from Japan next week and will have an 8 hour layover at Taoyuan Int’l. It’ll take some time to travel into Taipei and go back through security, but I should have at least 3-4 hours in the city I think.    I’m working through a self-study list heavily inspired by this post by wibr, and I’d love to take advantage of this opportunity to buy as many of these books as I can carry as my “personal item” XD.    ICLP Supplementary Chinese Readers 中國寓言 中國的風俗習慣(一) 中國的風俗習慣(二) 中國民間故事(一) 中國民間故事(二) 中國歷史故事(一) 中國歷史故事(二)   Vivian Ling and More ICLP Supplementary Chinese Readers 思想與社會 當代中國散文選 當代中國短篇小說選 中國新時期名作選讀 從精讀到泛讀   So, I guess my question is… where to go? I’ve heard Lucky Bookstore is a good place for textbooks. Will they have the first seven ICLP books at least?

*steps out of the lurkerzone*   Hello everyone, and welcome to a thread designed to document my Chinese progress.   Quick Backstory:   I lived and worked in China for two years a long time ago, and came out just shy of HSK 5 level. I speak/listen to Chinese every day for work, but haven't read anything beyond extremely daily conversation/IM topics in forever. I haven't deliberately practiced Chinese in roughly four years. My vocabulary is pretty bleak as a result, and has probably regressed to around 1500-2000 words tops. I now have a few months to play with where I'm likely to have afternoons free, and I want to use this time to improve/resurge my Mandarin as much as I can, and - above all else - get into good habits with it.   My Current Level:   I took a HSK 5 mock a few days ago and scored 170/300, with the following breakdown:     My listening is by far my strongest suit, and I found the audio somewhat slow. My score reflects a broader problem - my reading has become so poor that I occasionally couldn't recognise the multiple choice answers in the listening section, dragging the score further down. I rarely write, but I believe this score could be improved through extensive reading and deliberate grammar practice when necessary.   Study Plan:   Immersion & Anki. Rather than studying Mandarin with textbooks (again) or single-word, contextless flashcards (again), I'm going to try and seriously take a leaf out of the AJATT book - that is, immersing myself in Chinese as much as i can. I'm using Migaku to generate in-context flashcards in Anki with audio, tones and explanations. I'm getting flashcards from a mixture of native content (predominantly Chinese-language dubs and subs on Netflix or native content on YouTube) and from the HSK vocabulary list(s). I'm aiming at learning a minimum of 20 new words a day for the next three years. I'm happy for this to be more on some days and less on others, providing that works out as the average.   Healthy Competition. A friend of mine is moving to Taiwan, and we want to see who can make the most progress in a year. We're each tracking our time spent doing Chinese on Toggl Track, and can see how much progress the other has made in a given time period. No prizes for winning, but joint progress and accountability are nice.   This thread. I'm going to post here at the beginning of each month to lay out my progress in the month prior. Update posts are likely to be fairly brief, and will cover what I've watched, read, and screenshots of time spent and Anki stats. I know I find long-term progress logs like that inspiring - if you're reading this (and this post is old), then I hope you find this inspiring, too. 😊   Goals:   The main aim is to reach practical fluency in Mandarin. This is not a short-term endeavour, and I expect this to take years. I am budgeting three years for this, at which point life is highly likely to become far more demanding of my time. I would like this to culminate in passing the HSK 7-9 exam with a HSK 8+. The more 'concrete' goals along the way are:   Next Six Months: Have 1000 mature Anki cards Have 2500 mature Anki cards Pass the HSK 5 with a 'strong' score (250+)   Next Year: Have 5000 mature Anki cards Pass the HSK 6 with a 'strong' score (250+)   Next Two Years: Have 10,000 mature Anki cards Have 15,000 mature Anki cards Pass the HSK 7-9 with a 7+ grade   Next Three Years: Have 20,000 mature Anki cards Pass the HSK 7-9 with an 8+ grade   Bonus Goals: Have 25,000 mature Anki cards Have 30,000 mature Anki cards   I consider 30,000 mature Anki cards as being the effective 'end-game' of me actively studying Mandarin. I doubt going that deep is necessary, but I do think that would give me a level of fluency that's actively uncommon amongst learners of Chinese as a second language. I believe the long-term consistency is feasible (although will take discipline), and the immersion focus sound.   I'd love to hear any feedback you lovely forum-dwellers may have - any advice on how to manage time, and any lessons learned from failures that you've seen/have made yourselves from which I could benefit. I hope this makes for good, fun and consistent reading over the next few years. 😊