#study chinese

HSK 4 preparation - 18 days to go...

05 / 03 / 2026

After one failed attempt to pass HSK4 I'll try again. Currently I'm in a heavy revision mode: I'm going through ✨every✨ single module that I have in this year's book (Developing Chinese, Elementary Listening Course, II) and doing exercises from a wordbook (downloaded first .pdf that I found, fingers crossed it's an okay one). Those are meant to help me learn 1200 chinese words necessary to pass the test. Theoretically :)

Today's goal:

2 modules from Developing Chinese

100 words from the wordbook

Chinese in Real Life with Zakuwatorka (3)

星巴克 (Xīngbākè) — Starbucks 文章 (wénzhāng) — article / essay 看文章 (kàn wénzhāng) — to read an article 大学 (dàxué) — university / college 本科生 (běnkēshēng) — undergraduate student 硕士生 (shuòshìshēng) — master’s student 笔记本 (bǐjìběn) — notebook 盖 (gài) — lid / cover 自动铅笔 (zìdòng qiānbǐ) — mechanical pencil

Color Coding

HSK 1 HSK 2 HSK 3 HSK 4 HSK 5 HSK 6

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hi, I am zakuwatorka, I live in China, and every day I think in Chinese and see Chinese everywhere — on doors, streets, menus, habits, small gestures.

So I decided to turn my daily life into Chinese lessons 📷🇨🇳

From now on, I’ll share photos I take myself and add the Chinese words people actually use — with English meaning.

Chinese in Real Life with Zakuwatorka (1)

咖啡店 (kāfēi diàn) — coffee shop / café 书店 (shūdiàn) — bookstore / bookshop 喝咖啡 (hē kāfēi) — to drink coffee 灯 (dēng) — lamp / light 学习 (xuéxí) — to study / to learn 看书 (kàn shū) — to read (a book) 书架 (shūjià) — bookshelf 椅子 (yǐzi) — chair Let's see if you make a sentence using these words! Color Coding HSK 1 HSK 2 HSK 3 HSK 4 HSK 5 HSK 6

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hi, I am zakuwatorka, I live in China, and every day I think in Chinese and see Chinese everywhere — on doors, streets, menus, habits, small gestures.

So I decided to turn my daily life into Chinese lessons 📷🇨🇳

From now on, I’ll share photos I take myself and add the Chinese words people actually use — with English meaning.

用中文写日记，真爽～

Writing my journal in Chinese has become my favorite (and most effective) daily habit 🇨🇳✍️ (more on insta - click for full post) It’s not about creating a masterpiece. It’s about showing up for your language learning, in the messiness of real life.

✨ Why?  To use the words I actually need, to process my days here, and to find my own voice in Chinese — beyond textbooks, beyond academic language. 

✨ My “no-excuses” method: • The Cheapest Notebook Wins: More freedom, less pressure. • Embrace the “Junk”: Tickets, receipts, random stickers • Miss a Day (or a week)? No guilt. Just catch up later. Life happens. • The Core Rule: Write something. Anything. In your target language.

There’s no perfect way to do this. The ONLY mistake is not starting 🌝

你的借口是什么？(What’s your excuse?)

characters learned：甘，某，其，期，厂，厌，厅，近，诉，厚，反，饥，江，左，右

words learned：某个，某些，其他，讨厌，听力，听话，以后，后来，最后，后天，反正，相反，员工

notes:

characters learned: 全，报，服，元，远，玩，园，完，院，定，安，宝，匕，比，此，些

vocabulary learned: 衣服，说服，好玩儿，公园，完美，完全，一定，不一定，决定，安全，宝宝，匕首，比如，一些，有些，这些，那些，能力，可能，地铁

notes:

some here are new, but I already passively knew most of these. today I committed their tones and radicals to memory, rather than just recognizing them

did some speaking/listening practice with all these words, too, but I hope to do more on the other days this week

practiced reading/listening some dialogues with these words

couldn't study as much as I had hoped to (only two hours) because I teach a lot on Mondays, but I think this was still a solid day