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Yes, it's definitely Chinese, but I can only make out a few lines at a quick glance - the final line before the sign-off is a 'long live the friendship between the two nations of China and..." what I'm presuming is the USSR but it doesn't look quite like it at first glance. The signatory is also some sort of 代表团 = delegation. Will have a further peruse but just posting this up here to answer your initial question and to encourage better readers of cursive to take a look.

I have intentionally choose a "dramatic" headline - I don't think there is a really chance to experience a bore out in Shanghai but well - let me explain. First of all, this is an absolute luxury problem. I am "stuck" in a suburb of Shanghai being a pampered expat-wife. I was supposed to work here, but when we arrived in Shanghai my job got canceled last minute. There are a lot of wifes here (unfortunately, it's always the guys working) but I haven't found something something smart to occupy myself with, apart from writing (unsuccessful) applications and learning Chinese. I'm quite fed up with the expat community because all the wonderful ladies seem to do here all day is care for their kids, cook, decorate the house and personal beauty. Unfortunately, apart from caring for my kids, neither of these hobbies are for me and I feel exceptionally bored. I never felt bored before in my life. I'd rather work but finding work is slow and hard as a foreigner. Also, the following things complicate exploring life in the city: - I have a 6 month old baby I have to take with me anywhere (can only be apart from him max. 2h) - we live 1 h from the city center in one of the beautiful but outlying suburbs Again, I know this is an absolute luxury problem but still I somehow feel I don't fit into this rigid pattern of stay-at-home-expat wife and just want to break out. I try to learn 4 h of Chinese every day but this alone is a lonely hobby. Tell me, what would you do in this situation with all your free time in Shanghai?

I'm Android only, looking forward to more ludicrous news on this front

I've really enjoyed using TCB and have managed to keep up doing two reading exercises every day since the start of June. I started with a month around level 2 and then the next 3 months on level 3. I've done October and November on level 4 and i think I'm ready to move up to a mix of 4 and 5 for December. I've worked backwards from most recent on level 4 and have done over a years worth now but I've only really scratched the surface as there's now well over 9000 exercises across the grades. Still tentative on listening and need to improve - that's my goal for December and the New Year. Just started an iTalk teacher for the first time and enjoying it. As you mention @suMMit, I've found the news articles interesting and overall I feel it's an excellent option. I bought the lifetime subscription and it's already paid for itself as far as I'm concerned. The new app is definitely an improvement on the old one, though when doing the exercises the 'Keyword' exercises don't work well. I like that the 'Question and Answer' section now tells you which answer you have correct on the new app (rather than having to guess which answer you have incorrect before proceeding). It would be nice if the website could do the same. Although not colour-coded, I did wonder if @Friday has tried TCB having read his/her post earlier this week on a different thread?

I have mailed Peking University about their curriculum, but they have not got back to me. Is there someone here who can provide me with info on this? I want to apply for a CSC scholarship, but due to lack of info, I'm highly doubting my decision. Also, is it better for me to study Statistics as a discipline or as a major? I have a bachelor's degree in economics with a macroeconomics major. Thanks in advance, guys!

Exquse me, i cant say weather its mandarin or not. I study in Yasnaya Polyana school. During USSR times here was an orphanage. People all around the globe were coming here, some were writing somethnig in a guestbook, which is now located in out school museum. Ive examined it a little and found this. Can you please translate what is written here if its possible?

This comment is interesting to me, because I have a four-volume set from Jin Yong waiting on my bookshelf (射雕英雄传), and though I've improved my reading skills significantly (by working through about 45 books at this point), it's always looked intimidating. I always tell myself I'll get to it later! The language seems very stylish and not much like "everyday" modern Chinese. But if it's easier than it at first seems, that's encouraging!

Is there a way to export the soft subs? Or is there a way to download the audio to have AI transcribe it into text? The common audio extractors that work for Youtube, do not seem to work with Bilibili...

I'm glad to try it soon. I'm a long time user of Pleco, I find it very useful.

After wanting to for a long time, I finally subscribed. I was kind of waiting until I was working on Hsk 5 since I feel like that's where news kicks in, though I see it's graded from Hsk1 up. My Du Chinese subscription ended a while back and I prefer reading non-fiction and news, so decided to take advantage of the Black Friday discount and go for CB. Love it so far. I'm glad to see that these are current, real news stories that are graded, rather than "made up news stories". For example yesterday I read an article about lockless sharing bikes, and while I've used those many times, I never realized how to distinguish them from a distance(the ones with yellow baskets). So today when I saw one I ran the story back though my mind. Also cool that you can download the mp3s and re-listen to review. Post story exercises are good too.

Hello, do you have any plan for releasing the expert version for 冫? Nowadays you are stating that it represents two metal plates, something you can see in the character 冶. However I searched for some info on Chinese sources like 小學堂, which shows that it's original form is related to 仌. But i could not find anywhere anything similar to the two dots besides in the 麥方鼎 and 利簋 forms of 金 (by the way this is another important component that also doesn't have an expert version). Also I can't see why most of the meanings for 冫 are related to "cold" while only one (as far as I know) is related to metals. Thank you and keep on doing your great work.

I've just been looking for content that I'd otherwise watch in English, and actually some of the tech channels get better computer stuff than English channels. like Linus tech tips getting only a 128 core Epyc processor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvmbNUHQcxI This channel got two 128 core Epyc processors, and played GTA with just the CPU. Leaps and bounds above Linus Tech Tips. https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1oH4y1o77U but their Youtube presence is... https://www.youtube.com/@Geekerwan/videos I guess they've deleted most of their videos, but really if you want the Chinese video content you should be on BiliBili instead of Youtube.

This is so exciting. Congrats, Mike! This is a big milestone.

Completed this book in record time(for me), about 5-6 weeks cover to cover. Felt like an accomplishment as there is zero English or pinyin, and I was able to follow the analysis of all the questions and answers pretty well. This was all review, as I've already taken the HSK 4, though I learned some new vocab that was used for question analysis. My rationale in doing this book was just more repetition or sentence structures and vocab usage. I did 5 complete listening tests, plus 2 hours of audio breaking down listening questions into categories like "place questions", "attitude questions" etc. Also read every tape-script. 3.5 hours of audio with this book. Completed the writing section as well with broke the questions down by grammar type and included 6 practice tests with answers/sample answers. Not the most exciting book in the world, but certainly some good review. Next up is HSKK Intermediate. This will again be review, as I've already taken and passed the HSKK Inermediate. However, I took the speaking test with almost no specific test preparation, so I think this will be even more useful for when I take the HSKK again along with HSK 5 test sometime in the future. Over 4 hours audio with this book, and I'm looking forward to hearing the sample speaking answers/photo describing. I'm going to try and knock this one out in the same amount of time, around 5-6 weeks. Along with this, I'm still working my way through Kubler (on unit 15 of 24). Current study schedule: 1. Kubler Intermediate Spoken and Practice 2. HSK 1-4 Vocabulary Master 3. HSKK Intermediate Fun: Chairman's Bao 《幸福的方向》 (kind of sappy soap opera, but language is easy enough to follow quite well. Random Youtube videos Various books

This is exactly the post I've been looking for - just that I have this same question regarding the low-entry-level HSK. I just started learning chinese and am totally confused as to which HSK test level should sign up for. Everybody here keeps telling me the test for HSK 1-3 have stayed exactly the same, my teacher forwarded me a list with 300 words for HSK 2 and 600 for HSK 3. The 300 words for HSK 2 I know, so that would be just my level. BUT the official vocab list for HSK 2 on the website now has 700+ words - not just 300 and I don't know many of those! I just took the test on hsklevel.com and while I find the amount of words I konw the test predicts quite accurate (corresponds with my ANKI-Decks), it doesn't help with the decision. It says: I know 900 words in Chinese HSK level 2/6 🟩🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛ New HSK level 1/9 🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ Take the test on www.hsklevel.com Now which HSK test should I sign up for? HSK 2 or 1? Thanks!

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this question. I didn't know where to post or who to ask. I bought something online and the seller in China has told me that they will refund the item after a certain date. They sent me this screenshot but it's in Chinese. Would anybody be able to translate this for me and tell me what it says? Thank you so much.

I have bought Pleco in 2019 and sadly have not used it more than a handful of times since I am mostly reading Chinese texts on my PC. Any light at the end of the tunnel regarding implementing it on a PC laptop?

(yes, really) Currently iOS only, Mac + Android will be coming along later (for a hopefully not quite so ludicrous value of 'later') https://www.pleco.com/2023/11/29/pleco-4-0-beta/

Hi everyone, I have a few questions about which university is good in Shanghai ( or any big city) and offers an English-taught BBA (especially marketing) program! Preferably one with a good ranking or reputation, one that attends to their students. I don't mind taking the Chinese Language Program as long as after finishing it I am admitted to the chosen BBA program (if possible). I am an 11th grader with a 3.6 GPA and 3.2 previous year. I have a 7.5 IELTS and no intention of taking the HSK yet. No SAT yet but if needed then I will take it. I am willing to do more if that is what it takes (HSK 5 is not in the picture yet since I have a year left and am currently Mandarin-empty). Tuition is not limited! I would appreciate it so much if you guys could help me out. Thank you!

I found a Hong Kong online CD store selling it: https://www.cdwarehouse.com.hk/products/星球大戰iv-新的希望-star-wars-a-new-hope-dvd-remastered. I am not sure if the film is dubbed in Chinese. You can contact their customer service team.

Fair point; my experience is that the 超纲词 are substantially more gentle on the HSK5 than the HSK6. From here (2014) we have: which Google Translate translates to: (Where "extra-curricular words" is translated to "super-class words".) I'm not aware of other announcements in this regard. It's an old announcement and not very true for the HSK6 at least. But still, this is likely where the claim that the 超纲词 don't inhibit you from finding the correct answers originally comes from. For the HSK6 (which I've failed twice now, and I'm currently preparing for a third time), it seems like anything can appear anywhere. I skimmed a couple of past exams just now, and quickly found things like 这并非危言耸听 (H61333 Q.76-80) where 危言耸听 is not a HSK6 chengyu and 耸 is not a HSK 2.0 character, and 颜色绚丽 as one of the answers (H61332 Q.93), where 绚 is not a HSK 2.0/3.0 character. This is putting aside things like names (I recall 琼 and 庚 appearing in names in the writing section on official mock exams), and classical Chinese and metaphors. The actual HSK6 exams nowadays are much harder than these past exams, and I find I often need to actually understand what the text means---they often don't use the same vocabulary in the text and in the question. (I certainly feel this is not true: "the words in the test points and word question options should be within the range of 5,000 words".) I've seen quite a few posts on Reddit like this and this, where people report what it's like taking the HSK6: As for the HSK5, it's been a while now since I took the HSK5 (and when I took it, I had studied more than half of the HSK6 vocabulary, and many words outside the HSK). I definitely recall that the 5 words given to you in the HSK5 writing section were strictly from the HSK5 vocabulary (I don't remember encountering a counterexample here). So maybe the organizers indeed strictly restrict the 超纲词 for the HSK5 so that they don't interfere with you answering questions.

This is indeed still supported, yes. Color highlighting + indicating that a word has previously been looked up are on our to-do list.

If your main concern is telling 'known words' from 'unknown words', I seem to recall that pleco reader does mark words that have already been added to the user's collection (to avoid double entries). Selecting any length of text in the reader prompts a plus button to appear on top; if the character/word/phrase selected is already present in your collection, then the plus button appears encased in a square. I doubt that function has changed in recent updates.

I'm absolutely not up to date, but have they said that you need to *know* some set of undefined extra words, or that you'll be expected to be able to cope with unknown words in the text, but still get the answers right?

Here is a recap of 3 short books I've read in the past weeks: - 聚散兩依依 by 琼瑶: A romance novel by Qiong Yao. I can't say I enjoyed this one. Qiong Yao is great for learning (in particular the way she spams adjectives) but I think this will be my last book of hers. Her books are interesting for the cultural insights surrounding love and family, but this one was just too soap opera-ish for me. - 白馬嘯西風 by 金庸: A wuxia novella by Jin Yong. Not as hard as I expected. The vocabulary wasn't really a problem, the only minor issues were the longer sentences (compared to Gu Long) and some words used in a secondary meaning I wasn't familiar with (但 meaning only instead of but, 便 as 就, 那里 as 如何, etc.). I don't know how much harder his novels are, but I think I'll give it a year or so until I read one (書劍恩仇錄 most probably) to have a smoother experience. I don't know how to describe it, but the prose is closer to what I had envisioned before starting reading in Chinese, Gu Long and particularly Qiong Yao felt more familiar, closer to Western prose. Other than the beautiful ending, I absolutely adored the first half of this novella, which focuses on the setting and characters, the second half is more action-heavy and the plot becomes a bit messy. - 秃鹤不是一只鹤 by 曹文轩: A short story for kids by Cao Wenxuan from the collection 草房子, which contains 9 stories that share characters and setting. A very heartwarming story with vivid characters, but in the end not the most engaging read for adults. Still I might read another story in the future, it's very good for learning. I wanted to read 活着 by 余华 next, but I can't escape Gu Long's pulpy charm, so I picked up 血鹦鹉 by 古龙/黄鹰: A wuxia-horror novel by Gu Long, although apparently most of it was written by another author called Huang Ying. This is the first book in the 驚魂六記 series, and from what I've heard 吸血蛾 (and to a lesser degree 黑蜥蜴 and 无翼蝙蝠) are also worth checking out. Like the title says, it's about a parrot made of blood that grants three wishes. So far it's as fun as I expected. The next books I want to read: 活着 by 余华 金刚经说什么 by 南怀瑾: Non-fiction book explaining the Buddhist diamond sutra. 病毒 by 倪匡: My first attempt at science-fiction. 舍不得看完的中国史 by 渤海小吏: Non-fiction history book.