Learn Chinese Chinesimple HSK6

You may already know 称 (chēng), meaning “to call” or “to name”. If someone calls a victory a milestone, how would you tell a friend in Chinese what happened and what that person said about it?

With Chinesimple, the app from Khanji School, you’ve reached the final course in our HSK series for Mandarin learners. In HSK 6, you’ll practise making sense of what you read and hear, then putting it into your own words. Explanations in English help you follow longer sentences and keep track of who said what.

WHO CALLED IT A MILESTONE?

Read 他将这次夺冠称为球队历史上的一个里程碑 (“He called winning the title a milestone in the team’s history”). Start with 这次夺冠: the team won the title. Now look for 里程碑 (lǐchéngbēi), meaning “milestone”. Notice 他 (“he”) at the start of the sentence. He’s the one who called the win a milestone. If you just said “The team won the title”, what part of his message would you leave out?

Compare that with 我们这个年龄段被称为千禧世代 (“People our age are known as millennials”). Here, 被称为 means “are known as”. The sentence tells you what the group is called. Does it say who calls them that?

LISTEN TWICE, WITH A DIFFERENT FOCUS

Listen to a native speaker say the sentence about the team without looking at the text. The first time, listen for what happened. Listen again and focus on what comes after 称为. How did he describe the win?

If you lose the thread at 里程碑, look it up in the Chinese dictionary. Listen to its pronunciation, use the pinyin as a guide and read an example. Then go back to the whole sentence and try summing it up in English.

TELL A FRIEND ABOUT THE WIN

Imagine you’re telling a friend the news. First, say in Chinese that the team won the title. Then add that he called the win a milestone in the team’s history. You can use two sentences. Listen to the example again. Have you kept all three details: what happened, who described it and how?

Add expressions to your flashcard deck if you recognise them on the page but struggle to use them when you speak. Spaced repetition helps you revisit them over time. If you mix up two characters, look at the stroke order for one of them, write it yourself and find it again in the sentence.

PICK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF

Move on to the next module or spend a few minutes revising. Daily practice suggests what to work on next. You can track your progress and see how many days in a row you’ve studied.

PREPARE FOR HSK 6

Planning to take the HSK 6 exam? Practise with vocabulary, sentences and exercises from this level. Go back to the two examples. Which one mentions the person who called the win a milestone? Which one simply tells you what a group is called?

GET STARTED

Try Chinesimple with the sentence about the win. Listen for 称为. Then look up 里程碑 in the dictionary and save it for your next review. You can do all of this in one app.