Learning Chinese: What kind of effort is needed to complete HSK4, and what is it like to study higher levels?

 

Learning Chinese: What kind of effort is needed to complete HSK4, and what is it like to study higher levels?

By Serene Zawaydeh, February 13, 2023.

Serene Zawaydeh at China Cultural Center in Amman with HSK4 Certificate. February 13, 2023.

Last year, I wrote about an article about the process of learning Chinese, and at that time, I had completed HSK3.

“What does the process of learning Mandarin Chinese look like? Some tips for new learners.” By Serene Zawaydeh, January 20, 2022.

Having completed HSK4 and taken classes in higher level curriculum, I thought it would be a good idea to write an update. 

I wrote the following article in Chinese, but it is not the exact translation of this article. 
我的汉语学习方式- 做完HSK四之后！     
https://serenezawaydeh.blogspot.com/2023/02/hsk.html 

The Chinese Proficiency Test, 汉语水平考试（HSK） is a test of Chinese language proficiency for non-native speakers. HSK3 tests 600 words and was an online exam during the Pandemic. HSK Level 4 exam was a paper-based exam, which tests listening, reading and writing on paper, and the material includes 1200 words. Speaking is tested separately with HSKK, or HSK 口语考试, speaking test. I did the basic speaking test with HSK3 and the intermediate speaking test was a requirement for HSK4.

If you are new to Chinese, I am sure you would have skipped the letters which show the name of the test: 汉(hàn)语(yǔ)水(shuǐ)平(píng)考(kǎo)试(shì). On the left hand side, I have included pinyin on top of each Chinese character, which provides the pronunciation of the character with the tones. This is a main difference between the first three levels, which include pinyin, and HSK4, which does not include pinyin. Another main difference is that the listening part is not repeated in HSK4 and the intermediate speaking tests, unlike the first three levels and the basic speaking test.

When I did the basic speaking test along with HSK3, I found the online test platform to be slow during the preparation time. Students was not allowed to use a paper and pencil to write down notes during the allocated preparation time, and typing on the screen was slow, which ended up being confusing while answering. During the allotted period of time, instead of typing quickly, one ends up trying to choose the right character, and the system was slower than the usual typing and was not convenient. In HSKK intermediate test, there was preparation time to prepare to talk about two pictures and two topics for two minutes each, and we were allowed to use a pen and pencil to write some notes and prepare the answers. These notes, however, were definitely not complete sentences in Chinese, as there is no time for that. The time is just to prepare some ideas, and then when speaking, one has to just say the sentences, and need to talk for two minutes for each topic, which might seem like a short time, but in fact, making correct sentences for two minutes, and getting the content right, is not that simple. 

The required number of words tested increases, or in fact doubles at each level. From 150 words in HSK1, to 300 words in HSK2, and 600 words in HSK3 with pinyin. The number of words doubles from  1200 words in HSK4 to 2500 words in HSK5, and doubles to 5000 words in HSK6.

A new advanced exam HSK7-9 was introduced in March 2022, after which the student’s score will be determined, whether it is level 7, 8 or 9. New changes are planned to be implemented to the HSK tests, possibly in 2024, making the requirements more difficult for new learners right from the start. The number of required words for level 1 will be 500, so it will be like the existing HSK3. It will take longer and will take a bigger effort to finish even the first level.  The objective is to align learning Chinese with international standards, which does not really apply to learning Chinese, as it is totally different than learning other English and European languages, which have alphabets.

The new words in HSK Level 4, 5 and 6 books have meanings of new words in English. Meanwhile, the curriculum of Developing Chinese 发展汉语, high level, 高级 has the meanings of the new words are explained in Chinese. Each lesson is 3 pages long, with around 45 new words, but the actual new words could be 150 including new words encountered while reading the explanation for the meanings of new words. There are a lot of four character idioms at higher levels, which usually have a story behind them.

Learning Chinese outside the scope of school and university, as I am doing, is possible and is an interesting process. Speaking is the most difficult aspect when there is limited interaction with native speakers face to face.  However, there are a lot of resources and learning online is possible, but still, there is a need for getting classes with a native speaking teacher.  The lesson, however, would need prior preparation, and this helps with knowing what kind of questions need to be answered and where feedback is needed. 

Steps for learning HSK4 material

·       Learning the content of HSK books, including studying dialogues, words, and exercises. HSK4 has two books and two workbooks.

 

• Preparing before Class.
  
  

o   Listening to dialogues numerous times.

o   Writing the dialogues

o   Writing words several times.

o   Reading the dialogues out loud.

o   Listening to explanation of grammar points.

o Doing the exercises in the workbook after the end of the chapter.

     ·   Studying for exam  

       o   Completing studying all the chapters.

              o  Listening to dialogues several times.

       o   Listening to the workbook exercises several times.

       o   Solving past exams for both HSK4 and HSKK intermediate
        
       o   Writing about topics from past exams

       o   Getting feedback about writing from native teacher

       o   Writing sentences provided by the teacher 

Writing

Simplified Chinese is used in HSK, and not Traditional Chinese. Writing includes following the stroke order. Using Chinese writing practice paper helps with developing handwriting, as the syllables are written within the grid borders. I think students should start writing in level 1, to be able to continue with level 3. At the beginning, writing was slow, and I would look at every word to see how it would be written. With time and practice, writing became faster. I also didn’t really know what part needs to be written within one square. So getting feedback from the teacher about the writing is important, as sometimes there are words that might be written incorrectly, such as 块and 快. When feedback is obtained, one would start noticing these differences.

The first time listening to a dialogue at higher levels, comprehending the meaning is difficult, as there are a lot of new words.

I started writing down the dialogue or lesson provided while listening to the audio. As writing the full dialogue takes some time, I keep listening to the dialogue while writing the sentences, which helps with practicing talking about topics.

The writing part includes making sentences out of given words, and writing down sentences. It is important to finish up all the previous parts quickly, to finish up all the test. For online HSK3 test, constructing sentences using given words just needed drag and drop, so it didn’t actually require handwriting on paper. However, in the paper-based tests, answers are in writing. This is why it is important to be able to write quickly, and this skill needs to be developed over time.

Solving Past Exams

Numerous past exam models can be found online for different levels. At the beginning, solving HSK4 practice tests was tiring, as there were a lot of questions. The reading part was long. Finishing up the test requires concentration, being quick and knowing all the words is a must. With more practice, the reading section becomes manageable.  

I have also done Coursera course for HSK4, as well as HSK3. It is good to go over the course after learning all the material.

Preparing for Lessons and Listening to Grammar Explanations

One of the resources that I find helpful, is ChineseZeroToHero. It is a comprehensive resource that starts with level 1 and has material till higher levels. Being prepared before the lesson is needed. I used to listen to the lessons on the go, and I also referred to while reviewing the grammar points before HSK4.

Practicing Reading, Pronunciation, and Speaking

While learning the material of HSK4, in addition practicing writing while listening to the dialogues, I was also practicing reading each of the dialogues. I would repeat each dialogue many times, to be able to read the text without stopping. At the beginning, practicing reading dialogues several times  needed an effort that I felt in the muscles of my face!

In order to practice words and reading sentences, I have been using Chinesimple. It is a great app that I started using in HSK Level 1. I am now in HSK Level 5, and I find it great to have the professional version. It is very helpful for learning new words and new sentences as it has a lot of exercises and word games that are helpful with remembering new vocabulary, including strokes, and helps develop reading skills through repetition. After recording my reading, each sentence is checked by Google. Sometimes it feels like an achievement to see that a sentence was correctly identified by Google! I have repeated some sentences many times. Repeating the sentences helps with learning new sentences with correct structure and grammar. I would like to thank Chinesimple for thanking me for the feedback, and adding a thank you, 谢谢Serene, on version updates for Chinesimple after providing them with feedback and the strange results obtained after repeating the sentences. 谢谢Chinesimple!

Another app that I found useful while studying HSK4, is Hanbook. It includes dialogues about daily topics, and it was great to use it on a daily basis, practicing speaking about different topics, and getting a score for reading right away.

The apps are very helpful, as during the Speaking test, the first section is to repeat the sentence that is given only once. This requires understanding the given sentence in order to repeat it. The pronunciation also needs to be accurate.

Practicing for Speaking Test

In order to practice for the speaking test, I checked models of previous intermediate speaking tests, and wrote down my answers. I then checked them with my teacher, who also provided me with the correct sentences, with the proper grammar structure, and some idioms too.

Lessons with Native Speakers
Taking lessons with native Mandarin speakers is needed. The pronunciation is different as there are a lot of dialects in China. For example, the pronunciation in Beijing is different than Shanghai. The teacher’s pronunciation needs to be Mandarin Chinese, and would be aligned with the audio that is in the HSK material. This could be seen as the Modern Standard Arabic – Fus-ha, versus learning the dialects in an Arab country or within one country.  

“You don’t know what you don’t know”, is definitely true. While I enjoy making up new stories, my sentence structure might not be right. So getting feedback on how to get it correct is essential. The feedback I get, however, would not be limited to the level that I am studying, and the teachers always give feedback of higher levels.

Although I thought my preparation was well for the speaking test, it seems that I still need to work on this part. I think the intermediate speaking test needs a higher level than HSK4, which means using more vocabulary than what was in HSK4. Students in HSK5 who did HSKK intermediate got a higher score, which indicates their usage of more advanced vocabulary and better sentence structure, and probably some idioms.

Typing   

Going back to learning the content of the lessons. In addition to practicing writing words, dialogues, listening, and reading the sentences, typing is also needed while preparing for new lessons, especially at levels higher than HSK4, in which there are a lot of new words, and longer text that needs to be studied. Typing means knowing the correct pinyin of the word, which means knowing the pronunciation, and choosing the right character for it. It also helps in writing the words correctly, as you can zoom into the word.

To get the correct word in typing, if a word consists of two or three syllables, you need to write all parts of the word to get the word required. Sometimes, even finding the right word in typing takes some time especially if it is a new syllable. You need to look up all the options, and choose the correct syllable. Pleco mobile app is very useful app for looking up the meaning of words and I use it on a daily basis. I can write down the strokes with my finger on my phone, and get the word needed to know what it means, without knowing its pinyin. Sometimes the stroke order has to be correct on Pleco, to get the word required.

While writing Chinese, if you don’t see the word correctly, and if you can’t see the details of the strokes, you will definitely get it wrong, and would mistake it for another word, completely changing the meaning. If the book has fine print, it is not going to be helpful for reading! 

Writing down the word in hand, helps with retaining information and identifying the word when seen again.

Studying Higher levels

Writing the words and the sentences by hand, does not necessarily mean understanding new sentences, and sometimes some words might be written incorrectly, as some words look similar. This is why typing is needed at higher levels and when there are a lot of new words in the text. After typing the paragraph, I would look up the translation and get a better understanding of the content.

While taking the advanced level course, writing the pinyin on new words made the book look more difficult to read. Reading the sentences after typing them down, makes it easier to read, as the pinyin can be included on top of new words. Reading the whole paragraph as a whole without pinyin on any words is the optimal scenario.

When looking up new words, it is interesting to see other words that are used with the syllable, and this would enrich the vocabulary over time.

What is more challenging at HSK5 and above, is that the content of the exams is not limited to just the words in the HSK material, and other words can pop up.  

The Complexity of Simplified Chinese!

Some words are the same in Simplified and Traditional Chinese. In Chinesimple app, there are exercises to identify whether a word is the same or not in both Simplified and Traditional Chinese. The strokes in traditional Chinese are more complicated than Simplified Chinese. The HSK tests use Simplified Chinese. Traditional Chinese is used in Taiwan and in Hong Kong.

There are a lot words that have the same sound, but the writing is totally different.

Examples of Syllables that sound (fu)

服(fú)，夫(fū)，付(fù), 附(fù),  府(fǔ)， 负(fù)， 富(fù), 复(fù)， 福(fú)

Examples of words that contain each of the above syllables.

衣(yī)服(fu)，丈(zhàng)夫(fu)，付(fù)钱(qián)，政(zhèng)府(fǔ)，附(fù)近(jìn)， 符(fú)合(hé)， 负(fù)责(zé)，重(chóng)复(fù)，丰(fēng)富(fù)， 幸(xìng)福(fú)

Idiom that contains 符(fú)

同(tóng)符(fú)合(hé)契(qì) joint aim (idiom)

幸福means happiness.

福 on its own, means good fortune or luck. You might have seen a sign that has the word at Chinese restaurants

    Source: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A6%8F%E5%AD%97

 

The Complexity of Chinese Words and Sounds

There are many words that sound the same in Chinese. The more I learn Chinese, the more words pop up that sound like words learnt previously.

However, as the number of new words keeps increasing, recognizing new words that were not encountered before becomes easy. Meanwhile, writing all new words without looking at them, is definitely a challenge.

You might have come across paragraphs in English with the order of the letters mixed up, but you can still read them. For example, if you see the word: snetnece, your mind can pick it up as “sentence”. As long as the first and the last letter are the same, we can identify the meaning of the word although the letters are not in the right order.

However, in Chinese, the word cannot be missing a stroke. The correct writing also has to follow the correct stroke order as previously mentioned. There are rules for the stroke order as well. Following is an example of the word: School - 学校

https://www.archchinese.com/how_to_write_chinese.html

 

After providing this description of the learning process, I think the effort I put into studying HSK Level 4 was adequate. It enabled me to complete both HSK4 and HSK intermediate speaking tests. I think my speaking test result was lower than what I expected, as I talked for two full minutes about each of the four topics. So in the next phase, I need to work more on correct sentence structure, in addition to learning all thousands of words!

In order to develop speaking skills, interaction with native speakers outside the classroom could be helpful. Since the advent of the 2020 pandemic, classes turned online, and my speaking practice was based on apps and reading the dialogues.

Learning Chinese is a very interesting process. The HSK material is very interesting and meaningful. The process is time consuming, and takes time, that is years. I will continue putting an effort into it.  

Given the effort needed to learn Chinese, I think comparing Chinese to other European standard is not a useful process for the sake of the students who want to learn Chinese. The best thing would be to keep the current pace of learning Chinese, especially at the beginning. The students can decide whether they want to continue learning, or might drop out if they find the process too difficult and too time consuming. If a student is interested in the continuing their learning journey, they could get scholarships for studying in China.

Translation to Arabic
For Arabic speakers, it is worth noting that there are a lot of books that have been translated from Chinese to Arabic, and some books have both Arabic and Chinese. Egypt’s publisher, Bayt al Hekma, was at book exhibitions in Jordan, and it was an opportunity for me to buy a lot of books, which I am reading. Some books in Chinese are accompanied with CDs. https://www.facebook.com/baytalhekma.arabic.

In addition to learning Chinese, I also read books that have Arabic translation, and translated books. This is a very interesting domain, and there is a lot to learn. The Chinese economy developed at a high pace, while eliminating poverty. There are books about this domain in Arabic. It would be interesting to learn about the process in Arabic, while learning the language. In fact, after I started learning Chinese, I also started reading more in Arabic!

谢谢Ruben @ Chinesimple!

 

 * Article prepared independently to share the learning experience.

Blogs I wrote about the process of learning Chinese

我的汉语学习方式—做完HSK四之后!  2023年2月13日

Learning Chinese: What kind of effort is needed to complete HSK4, and what is it like to study higher levels?    2023 年2月13日

What does the process of learning Mandarin Chinese look like? Some tips for new learners.”   2022 年1 月20 日

The Ongoing Process of Learning Chinese, HSK5.  2024 年1 月10日

Examples of Simplified Chinese. There is no end to learning 学无止境! 2024 年1 月22 日

Change is the only Constant Thing in the Process of Learning Chinese. 2024年 7 月19 日

Tips for Practicing Writing Chinese Characters. 2024年9月10日

What if… Higher Levels of HSK Chinese Tests could be Redesigned? 2024年4月2 日

Making up Stories using Chinese Characters. 看汉字写小故事！2024 年6月29 日

Lost Bag Story, Handwritten in Chinese; 2023 年3 月16 日