Studying for the HSK

I realize that I haven't written since the end of February, but I've actually got very good reason -- I've been studying my tail off for the official Chinese language test, the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi 汉语水平考试, better known as the HSK.  Although my time in China has been over for almost four months already, I don't want my year there to be for naught.  Considering I was more or less a beginner when I first arrived, you could argue that I know I can speak Chinese at a fairly decent level now.  However, it was a personal goal of mine to at least reach a solid intermediate level.  I even wrote what my goal was in this blog post.  My goal wasn't ever so concrete that I specifically said I wanted to take a test, but at the same time, it got me to constantly learn every day while not being in the country.

After leaving Shanghai, I kept saying to myself, "Sure, I'll sign up for the HSK," which is only offered here in Düsseldorf twice per year.  I handed in my registration the day before it closed, not wanting to wait until the fall to take it.  I had been a bit indecisive which level to take, either HSK3 or HSK4.  The main difference is the number of vocabulary words that appear (600 vs. 1200, cumulatively) and the grammatical concepts.  I decided to take level 3 because I figured I don't actually need the certificate for anything in particular, e.g. studying at a university or for a job.  I'm really glad I decided on level 3 because I soon realized there were a lot of gaps in my vocab and grammar that I needed to fill!  So here's how I spent the last few weeks studying.

5 Apps Making My Life Easier in China

One major difference between the first time I moved abroad and this time around is having a smartphone.  Admittedly, I was a bit slow to jump on the smartphone bandwagon and only got one at the beginning of 2014.  My main reason to finally cave was because working at a tech company, my colleagues would laugh mercilessly at my old school Sony Ericsson, but I also wanted a new compact digital camera.  I figured I'd just get a phone with a great camera, which is why I decided to get *gasp* the Nokia Lumia 1020, a Windows Phone.

Since getting here to Shanghai, I've really come to appreciate having a Windows Phone because the native apps aren't blocked here.  Frankly, I don't get how Android works in China since the majority of Google services are blocked; even Gmail has been blocked via protocol (supposedly it's working again, but I haven't gotten any emails from my Gmail account on my phone for days).  Some may argue that there aren't any good WP apps available out there and everything is being developed for iOS and Android.  This may be true, but by doing some research and following sites like Windows Central, I've found some great apps that have helped me greatly here in China.  Here are five apps that have made adjusting to life here much easier.  (Note that I'm not including photo apps here because although they're great to have, these apps are really about adjusting to life here in China.)