Every year we have a thread on this and 2025 should be no different.    This is to invite you to reflect on your progress and activities in 2024 and your aims for 2025.

Hi, folks. Apologies if this is discussed elsewhere, but if so, I couldn't find it.   Is anyone aware of an online dictionary that has audio recordings that are easily downloadable for its words? I want to try using audio prompts on my flash cards, but would prefer one from a native speaker rather than recording them myself. A downloadable mp3 with the pronunciation of whatever word I'm studying would make that easier.   I imagine I could record the audio clips myself directly from my laptop's audio output, but that's a bit more trouble than if they're directly downloadable.   Thanks,    Mark

Hi guys this website helps me with learning Chinese even if I have a busy schedule and have couple of hours a week to learn. you can check them at rememble.org     I hope this will help.    Thanks

Hi there! I'm 25F from Italy and I am going to spend six months in chongqing from February 2025 at Chongqing University studying Chinese. I don't know anyone there yet and I'm trying to find someone who's going there as well. I'm looking forward to make friends annd enjoy the city, the Chinese experience and hang out! Let me know in DM or in the comment section! Maybe we can get in touch  

Hello everyone, I am a US citizen interested in studying for a master's degree in China starting Fall 2025. I am most interested in either Computational Linguistics or Computer Science.    As for my background, I graduated from a U.S. university with a bachelor's degree in Business Management and a minor in China Studies. I am a huge language nerd and have been studying Mandarin and Korean for the past couple of years, and recently I have added Japanese and Arabic into the study mix. I am very interested in pursuing a career in computer science and I thought why not try to specialize in the language aspect of computers. So I think computational linguistics might be the best for me. In addition with the rise of AI, I think following this career path might be lucrative in the coming years.    Mandarin is my strongest foreign language and I am currently preparing for the HSK 6 exam. I love being in China and I would love to study there with a scholarship. I am worried however of the potential of being rejected due to my lack of experience in CS. I have taken some beginner courses during my undergraduate years in Java, Python, and some Javascript. I will also be taking more undergrad CS courses during this upcoming Spring semester (also in part to pause my student debt lol) as a second bachelor's computer science student. If I want I can stay and finish the 2nd bachelors however I really want to go to China to study. So my plan is to apply for the Fall 2025 programs now and perhaps say in my statement of purpose that I am taking undergrad CS courses in the Spring to prepare myself for the masters.   Does anyone here have experience getting accepted into a CS or CL master's program in China without a formal background in it? I am interested in applying to Tsinghua, Peking, Zhejiang, and Nanjing University. Also what is your opinion on getting a CS degree vs a CL degree? Which would be more of a challenge to complete? And which degree do you think is more worthwhile to obtain?

I am considering being a subject teacher in China, and have already had a couple of interviews. I have a very unique problem, though. Basically my situation is as follows: I am originally from EU country A. I moved to EU country B a few years ago. I was working a university job for a while, but had to quit due to health reasons. I was out of work, started freelancing without knowing how to manage it. I ended up getting an accountant to take care of my local taxes, which I took care of in an organized manner. However, I forgot to inform my home country about some of the income. I thought I was only being taxed in the country of residence, but apparently I was subject to double taxation. I was accused of tax evasion, received a hefty fine and a 4 month suspended sentence. It sucked, as it really was an honest mistake, and I wasn't purposely trying to hide my income.   Otherwise, my record is clean, but I am worried that this will greatly impact being able to get a teaching visa to China. Is there anything I could do?

I'm interested in purchasing Chinese Zero to Hero, but one thing isn't very clear is how its distributed to the customers. Once one purchases, does one get a download link to access all the materials? Or does one have to access all on-line? Is it all a nice Zip file or on YouTube? My concern is I usually go to China for parts of the year, and I'd like to have complete access on my iPad, regardless of what Internet access I have.

I'm recently starting my journey to HSK5 after discovering that I vastly underestimated my Chinese level 😆. I'm scoring around 50% on the mock tests I find online, which ain't bad considering I started to pursue it out of nowhere, but also isn't enough to actually pass the test. I can understand most casual content (social media, daily life, modern novels, manhua etc) without many issues, which was a surprise to me because every person with an HSK5 that I've seen complained about still not being able to understand even some kids books, which hasn't been my experience at all. But I want to apply for university which requires an HSK5, and after getting a reality check I started to actively study for the HSK. I'm really more focused on the test itself for now, learning the language alongside is a nice side effect   I'm currently using the HSK5 Standard Course books, which are fine, but since this is my first time self-studying for something I don't really know how to use it... 🫠. Currently I preview the words of a new unit and add them into anki, then after a while (usually like 2 days) I read the text and solve the exercises on the textbook and the workbook. But I feel like this isn't really optimal, I struggle quite a bit with grammar and I feel like I'm not using the full potential of the book as I'm basically just cramming vocabulary. As for the test itself, the parts I struggle the most right now is 1) Listening 2) Part 1 of reading (fill in the gaps) 3) Part 1 of writing (reorder a phrase). I don't think there's much to do about improving listening other than to practice and listen more and more, but as for the other two I'm really lost. The fill in the gaps I find pretty hard because the options are usually words with similar meanings or grammar structures that I don't remember or mix up all the time (like the thousands of ways to use 从). Writing the essay is no issue, but I do struggle with the ordering exercise lol, I don't really know what to study there and I realized that my comprehension of chinese structure really sucks 😜   Any tips are welcome! Be it study tips, HSK tips or chinese tips. I'm interested in knowing if there's any way to adapt grammar studies and word usage (idk how to word it haha, the 词语搭配 and 词语辨析 sections of the textbook) into flashcards. I really like them cuz they're convenient, words wonders and I'm a big numbers nerd, so I love looking at my stats heh. Places to source practice exams are welcome too! I got the official 汉语水平考试真题集 book, but I feel like i'll run though the 5 exams quite quick. I know there's HSK Mock but 75元 per exam feels a bit expensive for my poor student pocket 🤧. I'm aiming to pass the test before April (which is when uni applications close), I think it's quite doable.... I hope 😄    

Hi all,   I think we are advanced enough as humans to realise learning foreign language will need the learner to undergo challenges greater than translating word by word. Duh, right.? Well what I'm getting at problem-wise is that I've got the Hanban textbooks for HSK study, and they're kinda great, except that the work (asides from composing occasional sentences incorporating a newly learned term/structure) it gets you to do is highly *funnel down to a multiple choice answer* which doesn't exactly foster my creative ability. And, because I'm understimulated, I go about thinking about all the words I don't know, and either fall into the translation trap or just get unhappy.   It essentially means I feel sick of opening my textbooks. I want something that requires me to make maybe a dozen or so two-sentence answers, having reflected on/understood a passage.   So, I want to know what exists in the way of CLIL for a Chinese learner? English is full of CLIL. Like, in an English learning book, there might be a dialogue about someone cooking something, then there's an ingredients problem, or argument, then there's a resolution. Or there might be a piece on the gold seekers in San Fran in 1949 and the people who screwed them over by charging the thirsty miners $100 for water.   TLDR: Do you know any good CLIL books for a Chinese learner of approx HSK4 level?

Hi everyone, I’m currently pursuing a master’s degree in China Studies at Ocean University of China, focusing on Chinese history. My thesis explores Spanish-language sources from the 16th century related to China, so my research doesn’t require extensive use of Chinese. Spanish is my native language. I’m considering continuing my studies with a PhD in history, preferably in Chinese history or global history, at a university in China. I’m particularly interested in English-taught programs, as my master’s is also in English and this is the language I primarily use for research. I would love to hear from anyone who has insights or experiences regarding PhD programs in history in China, especially those taught in English. Could you share information about the application process, the structure of the programs, and any recommendations for universities? Thank you in advance for any advice or details about programs that you can share!  Best regards.