Writing a project which uses the ChinesePod API is great. What really amazes me: You’re using Haskell, I never see people using Haskell for real projects.
@edsko This is a really cool method of sorting the lessons and very useful for those who are doing the HSK. Makes learning the vocab a lot more interesting when you find relevant dialogues.
Apart from that:
I’m so glad that Chinesepod just doesn’t focus on HSK vocabulary. For me plain HSK vocabs is not kind of a vivid language learning process but ChinesePod is.
@sven100 That’s funny, I see those people all the time – though come to think of it, that might have something to do with the fact that I write Haskell for a living and work for a Haskell consultancy company
And yes, I’m not suggesting ChinesePod stick to the HSK vocabulary. But if someone is studying for the HSK then having a list of dialogues targeted at the HSK vocabulary is quite useful.
@edsko Thank you for letting us use the results of your hard work in making these lists.
Just one question: I can’t work out how to get from your Pleco link to actually having the vocab in Pleco. Would you mind giving a step-by-step procedure? I am using Pleco on my iPod. Thanks again for this.
@dorothycowling Pleco’s import procedure is a little awkward. It’s explained in detail in Pleco’s manual; see https://www.pleco.com/ipmanual/flashtut.html#importingotherflashcardlists . Let me know if you have any difficulty. (The manual says you should first package the file up into a .zip
file; this is not necessary. The file is UTF8 encoded and Pleco will recognize this just fine.)
(The easiest thing, I think, is to use Dropbox. First, backup your current flashcard database (Flashcards, Import/Export, Backup Database. This is a useful thing to do anyway. Then Pleco will create a directory Apps/Pleco Chinese Dictionary
in your Dropbox account, and store some files there. Put the file from my website there as well. Then Import/Export again, Import Cards, skip step 1, just click on Import, then File, then select the file you just uploaded to Dropbox. and click Begin Import. Like I said, it’s a little awkward ).
@edsko. Thank you for so generously sharing your hard work with others.
I’ve been using HSK vocab levels as a way to structure my Mandarin learning. So your selection of CPod lessons is very powerful as the lessons you’ve pulled out show and explain with great relevance how to use all this HSK vocab.
Now that I’m using skritter I think I will go through the lessons using this HSK order to slowly build up my reading/writing skills. I’ve decided that this year I am going to really focus on my writing/reading skills to help improve my mandarin.
Thanks again for all the hard work sorting through the lessons to do this HSK listing!
@436865276 and @Matt_T, glad you find the list helpful. Hopefully I’ll find some time to construct a list for HSK4 soon(ish).
Yes, please for an HSK 4 list! I’m only just starting on HSK 3 Ele/Intermediate but I’m sure it’ll be useful for a whole lot of other people.
This is a very creative solution for imposing a different level of organization on the large library of CPod material. I wonder if CPod could incorporate it into a future build of the website. I’m not studying for the HSK, but I can still see the value of this approach. What I would like is a function where I could dump in a block of text (for example, a feature article in the newspaper) and have all of the CPod lessons that are likely to help reinforce the vocabulary in the reading listed in order of (likely) relevance.
What I would like is a function where I could dump in a block of text (for example, a feature article in the newspaper) and have all of the CPod lessons that are likely to help reinforce the vocabulary in the reading listed in order of (likely) relevance.
I think this is harder than it sounds. I’ve constructed these lists with the help of a program I wrote specifically for this purpose (https://github.com/edsko/ChinesePodAPI) and while that helps, there is still quite a lot of human input involved; when a word is covered by two dialogues, how do we decide which one to pick? Maybe one covers more “useless” vocabulary (for your specific purpose) than the other, but maybe it also covers more useless vocabulary (two words out of your text, for instance); exploring all options to find the optimal solution is not possible (the program would take far too long to compute). Moreover, how we decide which word is useless? This too involves quite a bit of human feedback (see the detailed discussion I have about marking words as useless in my blog post about the list for HSK 4).
@edsko, I regularly use your HSK lists - most helpful for developing HSK vocab while picking up grammar, sentence construction, etc. gems in the Chinesepod lessons which feature the relevant terms.
But, help! your link hasn’t been working for a couple of days. Any chance you could fix it?
Many thanks in advance,
Katherine
Hi Katherine,
It seems there is a problem with my server I’ve contacted the admins, but meanwhile, here’s the list:
HSK 1 (92% coverage, 39 dialogues, 51% HSK vocabulary)
For the HSK1 list I gave preference to Newbie dialogues over Elementary dialogues, and included no dialogues of a higher than Elementary level.
- I want to buy this one (Newbie)
- Dialect Party Mix (Newbie)
- I love China! (Newbie)
- This is mine! (Newbie)
- Requesting a Glass of Water (Newbie)
- Wrong Change (Newbie)
- My Dog (Newbie)
- What’s tomorrow? (Newbie)
- Knowing the Teacher (Newbie)
- How many people are in your family? (Newbie)
- Before Noon, After Noon (Newbie)
- Fruit Salad (Newbie)
- When will he return? (Newbie)
- Who is that? (Newbie)
- Taking a Shower (Newbie)
- How’s the weather? (Newbie)
- Counting Coins (Newbie)
- Where Did You Go? (Newbie)
- Away on Business (Newbie)
- Where is the Supermarket? (Newbie)
- Taxi to the Airport (Newbie)
- Explaining Your Job (Newbie)
- Taking the Train to Beijing (Newbie)
- Shanghai Sightseeing (Newbie)
- Tables and Chairs (Newbie)
- Serving Tea (Newbie)
- How Long Have You Been in Shanghai? (Newbie)
- Which City Do You Like? (Newbie)
- Which Character Is That? (Newbie)
- Say It Again, Please (Newbie)
- A Self-Introduction (Newbie)
- What Do You Want To Eat? (Newbie)
- Introducing One’s Children (Elementary)
- Common Measure Words (Elementary)
- Excited About Traveling (Elementary)
- Character Amnesia (Elementary)
- Where Did You Learn Chinese? (Elementary)
- Preparing for the HSK (Elementary)
- Help Backing Up a Car (Elementary)
The following HSK 1 words are not covered by this list: 读, 些, 医院, 饭店, 米饭, 商店, 电脑, 中午, 电影, 后面, 电视, 苹果. Some words were covered in a slightly different form: 什么时候 instead of 时候, 你的 instead of 的, 多少 instead of 少, 下个月 instead of 月; 看见 is covered by the combination of 看 and 听不见, and finally 上 and 下 are both covered in various combinations (下午, 一下, 上海, 晚上, 上午, etc.).
HSK 2 (94% coverage, 58 dialogues, 38% HSK vocabulary)
For the HSK 2 list I consider all HSK 1 vocabulary known (but not the non-HSK vocabulary that was covered in the dialogues we picked for the HSK 1 vocabulary). For this list I gave preference to Newbie and Elementary levels, and included one Intermediate level dialogue.
- New Year (Newbie)
- I like beef (Newbie)
- Happy Birthday (Newbie)
- I Got Married (Newbie)
- What are you doing? (Newbie)
- Power Outage (Newbie)
- Didn’t Hear Clearly (Newbie)
- Sweet Watermelon (Newbie)
- My Cat (Newbie)
- How do you take your coffee? (Newbie)
- Eating Tofu (Newbie)
- How many people are in your family? (Newbie)
- Time for Class (Newbie)
- Chinese Green Eggs and Ham (Newbie)
- Are You Tired? (Newbie)
- Formal Introduction (Newbie)
- Sing and Dance (Newbie)
- Finding a Taxi (Newbie)
- Taking the Train to Beijing (Newbie)
- Weekend Activities (Newbie)
- Let Me Sleep a Little Longer (Newbie)
- Who’s That Over There? (Newbie)
- Haggle For A Good Deal (Newbie)
- The Traffic Jam (Elementary)
- Do I look good in this? (Elementary)
- Pronunciation Correction (Elementary)
- Directions with a Map #2 (Elementary)
- Consoling the Bereaved (Elementary)
- Flags and National Anthems (Elementary)
- Hard of Hearing (Elementary)
- Hungry Traveler: Xinjiang (Elementary)
- Introducing the Managers (Elementary)
- How Many Zeroes? (Elementary)
- What do Foreigners Like? (Elementary)
- No TV Before Your Test! (Elementary)
- A Thanksgiving Phone Call (Elementary)
- Medicine Doses (Elementary)
- Finishing Work for the Weekend (Elementary)
- Giving up a Seat on the Bus (Elementary)
- An Email Introduction (Elementary)
- City Districts in Shanghai (Elementary)
- Don’t Eat the Snow (Elementary)
- Introducing Kids to Each Other (Elementary)
- Didn’t you get my email? (Elementary)
- Can I Have your Phone Number? Please? (Elementary)
- Favorite Sports (Elementary)
- Commuting Options (Elementary)
- Lessons Per Week (Elementary)
- Where’s My Takeout? (Elementary)
- Washing Clothes on the Road (Elementary)
- Rice with Soy Sauce (Elementary)
- Classic Haggling (Elementary)
- Shanghai Weather Forecast (Elementary)
- Ticket to Ride (Elementary)
- It’s a Boy! And a Girl! (Elementary)
- A Visit to the School (Elementary)
- Can Your Kid Speak Yet? (Elementary)
- City Comparison (Intermediate)
The following HSK 2 words are not covered by this list: 公共汽车 (though 公交车 is included instead), 妻子, 铅笔, 正在, 打篮球, 跑步, 帮助, 事情, 着, 高 (though 高兴 is included). Some words were covered in a slightly different form: 足球 and 踢 as two separate words instead of 踢足球, 外卖 (and 老外) instead of 外, 晴天 and 阴天 instead of 晴 and 阴, 问题 instead of 题, 出去 instead of 出, 每天 instead of 每.
HSK 3 (93% coverage, 108 dialogues, 29% HSK vocabulary)
For the HSK 3 level I consider all HSK 1 and HSK 2 vocabulary known (though not the additional vocabulary covered by the above dialogues). I have used dialogues at Newbie, Elementary and Intermediate level; none of higher level.
- Useful Phrases #1 (Newbie)
- Finding a Cheap Hostel (Newbie)
- Thirsty for Water (Newbie)
- Buying Bread and Butter (Newbie)
- St. Patrick’s Day (Newbie)
- Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes (Newbie)
- Colors Song (Newbie)
- Sweet Watermelon (Newbie)
- Giving up a Seat (Newbie)
- Forget It (Newbie)
- Turn on the Light, Turn off the Light (Newbie)
- Cat in the Hat (Newbie)
- Don’t push me! (Newbie)
- What Time is It Now? (Newbie)
- Which country are you from? (Elementary)
- My boss isn’t satisfied (Elementary)
- What’s your type? (Elementary)
- Your turn to pay! (Elementary)
- Surfing Online (Elementary)
- Cooking (Elementary)
- Morning Hygiene (Elementary)
- I want to play (Elementary)
- Making Copies (Elementary)
- Directions with a Map #1 (Elementary)
- Consoling the Bereaved (Elementary)
- Man or Woman? (Elementary)
- Wang Wei’s Diary: Food and Girls (Elementary)
- Getting Dressed (Elementary)
- Yang Jie’s Diary: He’s Not Stupid (Elementary)
- Don’t Litter (Elementary)
- Art Museum (Elementary)
- Yang Jie’s Diary: The Final Episode (Elementary)
- Hungry Traveler: Xinjiang (Elementary)
- How Many Zeroes? (Elementary)
- Blow out Your Candles (Elementary)
- Juiced! (Elementary)
- Language Exchange (Elementary)
- Picking Up a Friend at the Airport (Elementary)
- The North Has Central Heating (Elementary)
- What have you done in 2009? (Elementary)
- Giving up a Seat on the Bus (Elementary)
- Reviewing in Class (Elementary)
- Which Subway Exit (Elementary)
- You’ve been everywhere! (Elementary)
- Your First Mooncake (Elementary)
- Toothache (Elementary)
- Dining and Dropping (Elementary)
- Handsome Foreign Student (Elementary)
- 5000 Years of History (Elementary)
- Asking Height and Weight (Elementary)
- Hospitality Series 5: Searching for Shopping (Elementary)
- Asking About the New Job (Elementary)
- Asking for Sick Leave (Elementary)
- A Simple Tour of the Office (Elementary)
- Recognizing a Blind Date (Elementary)
- Questioning a Child (Elementary)
- A Snake Discovery (Elementary)
- Can You Help Me Move? (Elementary)
- Umbrella Opportunism (Elementary)
- Season Preferences (Elementary)
- Story Time (Elementary)
- I’ll Call You Back (Elementary)
- I Said COLD Cola (Elementary)
- Shampoo and Cut (Elementary)
- Full for Real (Elementary)
- The Year of the Horse (Elementary)
- No Parking Here (Elementary)
- Changing the Plate (Elementary)
- No Tampons?! (Elementary)
- Changing your Profile Picture (Elementary)
- Can you hear that? (Elementary)
- Borrowing Money From a Friend (Elementary)
- Signing for Someone Else’s Package (Elementary)
- The Cycling Holiday (Elementary)
- The Dolphin Show at SeaWorld (Elementary)
- Not Studious Enough (Elementary)
- City Comparison (Intermediate)
- Shopping (Intermediate)
- Future Goals (Intermediate)
- Standing in Line (Intermediate)
- Old Friend (Intermediate)
- Using a Dictionary (Intermediate)
- Chicago (Intermediate)
- Beauty Pageant: It’s a Mess (Intermediate)
- Personal Ad (Intermediate)
- Excuses for Being Late (Intermediate)
- Visiting a Friend at the Hospital (Intermediate)
- Hot Pot Chitchat (Intermediate)
- Meeting the Girlfriend’s Parents (Intermediate)
- Music Corner in the Park (Intermediate)
- Walking the Bird (Intermediate)
- Considering an iPad (Intermediate)
- Farewell Dinner (Intermediate)
- Funerals and Consolation (Intermediate)
- Substitute Teacher (Intermediate)
- Snoring Again (Intermediate)
- Discussing a Work Out Plan (Intermediate)
- The Tea Scam (Intermediate)
- Calling a Moving Company (Intermediate)
- Earthquake Evacuation (Intermediate)
- The Life of a Programmer 4: A New Opportunity (Intermediate)
- Discussing the Ayi (Intermediate)
- Chinese Class Placement (Intermediate)
- No Time for Questionnaires (Intermediate)
- Photos with Animals (Intermediate)
- I’m Being Followed! (Intermediate)
- Participating in a Marathon (Intermediate)
- Eating Dinner with a Client (Intermediate)
Hope that helps
Hi edsko,
Thanks so much. Very generous! I would add emoticons with large bunches of flowers but have no idea how to do it…but you get the picture.
Would it be possible to have the HSK4 list too as I’m between the 2 levels?
Your selection is such a useful way to navigate the rich and vast ChinesePod library.
Kind regards,
Katherine
P.S. I tried to reply earlier but made the mistake of replying to the no-reply email.
I had kind of been hoping edsko.net would not be down for so long, but since it’s still not up… here you go: ChinesePod dialogues for HSK 4 .
Super THANKS, edso!
Sorry, I of course meant “edsko”
Best regards,
Katherine
Just taking a look at your playlists as I’ve been finding the other playlists pretty useful.
What I like about these playlist is that, being HSK vocabulary, they tend to cover more random subjects than say, the Daily Life series, (which are amazingly useful in themselves). I think for any beginner, the Daily Life series together with your HSK series would be a very, very fine start indeed. In fact, I couldn’t think of anything better. Saying that, ATWTI seems to be developing very well. I’m very interested in seeing where that goes.
Thank you!