HSK 1 Student Reflection

Posted on: 7 October 2024 in Posts

Read about a recent student's learning experience with LCI, undertaking HSK 1 for beginners, and since having moved on to HSK 2.

I have always had an intense curiosity about the world around me. There is such beauty to be found in the way people can function on a rock inhabited by over 8 billion people. Through this curiosity, I became increasingly interested in developing language skills.

Initially, I spent time researching different countries online and their respective languages, trying to understand which languages would be the best for me to pursue. After reading countless web pages, I came across a page discussing China and the Mandarin Chinese language. And that was it. I was hooked!

I began researching institutions that offer Mandarin Chinese lessons and I was thrilled to learn about the University of Liverpool Confucius Institute. Having read the website, I made up my mind- it was time to start having Chinese lessons.

In starting my lessons, I began a journey to conquer the task of mastering the Chinese spoken language tonal system. The Chinese language has four distinctively pitched tones as well as a neutral tone. As this is entirely different to the English language, I initially felt a little nervous but I was quickly put at ease by a very supportive tutor who encouraged me to take every opportunity to speak. I learnt repetition through frequent practice is key. When encountering unfamiliar sounds, I have found making sure that you take the time to say each sound aloud multiple times is incredibly important in improving your skills. There are definitely moments when you encounter pronunciation challenges, but given time, I have found that you make immense progress by speaking Chinese often.

Having worked on my spoken tone sounds, with the support of my tutor, I began to come to grips with speaking phrases using the Chinese romanisation learning system of pinyin. Lesson by lesson, these phrases have become longer and I am now shocked to be at a point in my learning where I can start a lesson having introductory exchanges with my tutor in Chinese. Having the opportunity to speak regularly with a Chinese native speaker in this way is incredibly rewarding.

Another aspect I have enjoyed through learning Mandarin Chinese is developing my written skills. Mandarin Chinese is written using characters. At first glance, these characters emanate such precision and complexity that it seemed daunting to try to write them myself. However, I have been taught by my tutor how to write each character in Hanzi grids. This seemed like a faraway dream at the start of my learning journey but it has now become a reality for me each day as I practise writing Chinese characters.

There is nothing more satisfying than seeing what seemed impossible at the start of a journey come to life.

Furthermore, I have found that the University of Liverpool Confucius Institute teaching framework places emphasis on unlocking moments to develop cultural understanding. In each of my lessons, there are moments where culture is discussed.

Often there are times when points raised about cultural history and norms are linked to important grammatical lessons. Notably, I have found learning about the word order for Chinese names to be a particularly important grammar lesson that can be linked to the names of important Chinese historical figures.

This point became clear when I had the opportunity to learn about the Dragon Boat festival and the life of Qu Yuan. In addition to learning Qu Yuan’s name, it was also fascinating to learn about the ways in which the Dragon Boat festival is celebrated ranging from eating Zongzi to racing dragon boats.

To put it simply, through learning Mandarin Chinese, you are learning not only a language but a culture. All in all, I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience learning Chinese with the University of Liverpool Confucius Institute in all aspects and I am filled with excitement to continue learning the language.