HSK Standard Course 1 Study Notes

Publication and Authorship

• Organization: Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban).
• Product: HSK Standard Course 1.
• Publisher: Beijing Language and Culture University Press.
• Lead Author: Jiang Liping.
• Authors: Wang Fang, Wang Feng, Liu Liping.
• Publication Timing: The foreword and preface are dated November $16\text{th}$, $2013$.

Foreword by Xu Lin

• Examination Shift: Revised in $2009$, the HSK test shifted from testing Chinese language proficiency to assessing the learners' ability to use Chinese for communication. This represents a breakthrough in testing concepts and adaptation to global Chinese teaching realities.
• Evaluation Utility: Results are used to define Chinese competence and serve as a criterion for education and employment.
• Project Objective: To promote standards for Confucius Institutes, establishing a step-by-step, practical, and efficient teaching system.
• Collaboration: Under authorization from Hanban, the course was developed jointly by Chinese Testing International (CTI) and Beijing Language and Culture University Press.
• Core Concept: Characterized by a humorous style and familiar topics, the course aligns with HSK test content, form, and levels, practicing the philosophy of "combining testing and teaching, and promoting learning and teaching by testing."

Preface by Jiang Liping

• Candidate Statistics: Global HSK candidates reached $310,000$ in $2012$. In the first quarter of $2013$ alone, there were approximately $70,000$ candidates.
• Educational Philosophy: Compilation follows the "post-methodological age" of language teaching, which is people-oriented, group-study-oriented, and integrates communicative, task-based, and theme-based approaches.
• Student-Centered Integration: Though Level $1$ and Level $2$ tests only involve listening and reading, the textbook begins teaching Chinese pronunciation, characters, and oral skills from the first level to develop integrated language ability.
• Language Authenticity: The course avoids traditional repetitive drills. It uses diverse situations to demonstrate real-life language use while staying within the vocabulary and grammar limits of the syllabus.
• Theme-Based Network: Starting from Book $4$, the course employs themes and sub-themes to create an organic knowledge network intended to improve memory retention.

HSK Course Structure and Scope

• Academic Timing: Educational institutions can determine the span based on intensity. Book $1$ ($34$ suggested hours) takes approximately one month with $8$ hours/week or two months with $4$ hours/week.
• Workbook Synergy: Workbook exercises match the HSK test type, structure, and order exactly.
• Oral Test Preparation: Each lesson provides pair or group activities to prepare students for the independent HSK oral test (HSKK).

Guide to HSK Standard Course 1

• Target Audience: Learners without systematic Chinese experience (zero-point beginners) or those preparing for HSK Level $1$.
• Lesson Architecture: The book contains $15$ lessons.
  • Lessons $1$ and $2$: Focus on pronunciation.
  • Lessons $3\text{-}15$: Each lesson features a topic across $3$ situations with $1\text{-}2$ dialogues each.
• Linguistic Scope: Strictly follows the $150$ words of the HSK $1$ Syllabus, with only $10$ additional words (Level $2$ or $3$ items) marked with an asterisk (*). Each lesson covers $10\text{-}15$ new words and $3\text{-}4$ language points.
• Instructional Focus: Each lesson is designed for $2\text{-}3$ hours of instruction.

Lesson Components for Lessons 3-15

1. Warm-up: Use pictures to lead into key words and phrases.
2. Text: Includes three situations; uses words and sentence patterns from past HSK tests to familiarize students with real-life application.
3. Notes: Grammar is minimized in favor of concise table-based explanations. Examples are provided from simple to difficult, with colored text indicating the sentence as it appears in the lesson.
4. Exercises: Training in listening, speaking, answering questions, describing pictures, and completing sentences. These align with HSKK elementary test formats.
5. Pinyin:
   • Lessons $3\text{-}5$ differentiate initials and finals.
   • Lessons $6\text{-}15$ focus on tone collocations (disyllabic, trisyllabic, and neutral tones).
6. Characters: Covers $17$ basic strokes, $6$ stroke orders, $7$ structures, $52$ single-component characters, and $18$ radicals. Students are required to recognize all Level $1$ characters but only write the basic strokes and single-component characters.
7. Application: Interaction-oriented pair work and group work.
8. Culture: Three cultural notes distributed every five lessons (Lesson $5$, $10$, and $15$).

Curriculum and Grammar Outline

• Lesson 1: Hello (Nǐ hǎo)
  • Words: Nǐ, hǎo, nín, nǐmen, duìbuqǐ, méi guānxi.
  • Pronunciation: Initials (b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, h, j, q, x), Finals (i, u, ü, er, a, ia, ua, o, uo, e, ie, üe, ai, uai, ei, uei/ui, ao, iao).
  • Grammar: Tone sandhi (3+3 becomes 2+3).
• Lesson 2: Thank you (Xièxie nǐ)
  • Words: Xièxie, bù, bú kèqi, zàijiàn.
  • Pronunciation: Initials (zh, ch, sh, r, z, c, s), Finals (ou, iou/iu, an, ian, uan, üan, en, in, uen/un, ün, ang, iang, uang, eng, ing, ueng, ong, iong), Neutral tone.
• Lesson 3: What's your name? (Nǐ jiào shénme míngzi?)
  • Grammar: Interrogative pronoun "shénme", the "shì" sentence, interrogative "ma".
  • Proper Nouns: Lǐ Yuè, Zhōngguó, Měiguó.
• Lesson 4: She is my Chinese teacher (Tā shì wǒ de Hànyǔ lǎoshī)
  • Grammar: Interrogative pronouns "shéi" and "nǎ", structural particle "de", interrogative particle "ne" ($1$).
• Lesson 5: Her daughter is 20 years old this year (Tā nǚ'ér jīnnián èrshí suì)
  • Grammar: Interrogative pronoun "jǐ", numbers below $100$, particle "le" for change, interrogative phrase "duō+dà".
• Lesson 6: I can speak Chinese (Wǒ huì shuō Hànyǔ)
  • Grammar: Modal verb "huì" ($1$), adjectival predicate sentences, interrogative pronoun "zěnme" ($1$).
• Lesson 7: What's the date today? (Jīntiān jǐ hào?)
  • Grammar: Dates (month, date, day), nominal predicate sentences, serial verb construction ($1$): qù + place + to do sth.
• Lesson 8: I'd like some tea (Wǒ xiǎng hē chá)
  • Grammar: Modal verb "xiǎng", interrogative pronoun "duōshao", measure words "gè" and "kǒu", money expression.
• Lesson 9: Where does your son work? (Nǐ érzi zài nǎr gōngzuò?)
  • Grammar: Verb "zài", interrogative pronoun "nǎr", preposition "zài", interrogative particle "ne" ($2$).
• Lesson 10: Can I sit here? (Wǒ néng zuò zhèr ma?)
  • Grammar: "Yǒu" sentence (existence), conjunction "hé", modal verb "néng", imperative with "qǐng".
• Lesson 11: What's the time now? (Xiànzài jǐ diǎn?)
  • Grammar: Time expression, time words as adverbial, noun "qián" (before).
• Lesson 12: What will the weather be like tomorrow? (Míngtiān tiānqì zěnmeyàng?)
  • Grammar: Interrogative pronoun "zěnmeyàng", subject-predicate phrase as a predicate, adverb "tài", modal verb "huì" ($2$).
• Lesson 13: He is learning to cook Chinese food (Tā zài xué zuò Zhōngguó cài ne)
  • Grammar: Interjection "wèi", "zài…ne" for action in progress, phone number expressions, modal particle "ba".
• Lesson 14: She has bought quite a few clothes (Tā mǎile bù shǎo yīfu)
  • Grammar: "Le" for occurrence/completion, noun "hòu" (after), modal particle "a", adverb "dōu".
• Lesson 15: I came here by air (Wǒ shì zuò fēijī lái de)
  • Grammar: Structure "shì…de" for emphasizing time/place/manner, year/month/date/day combinations.

Phonetic System Guide

• Tones: There are four basic tones:
  • $1\text{st}$ tone ($55$)
  • $2\text{nd}$ tone ($35$)
  • $3\text{rd}$ tone ($214$)
  • $4\text{th}$ tone ($51$)
• Syllable Structure: Composed of an initial, a final, and a tone. Some syllables have no initial but must have a final and tone.
• Rules of Pinyin:
  • Tone Marking: Put on vowels in the order: a, o, e, i, u, ü. Note: "iu" is an abbreviation of "iou", so the tone goes on "u".
  • Abbreviations: iou, uei, uen after initials are written as iu, ui, un.
  • Y and W: If a final starts with i, u, or ü without an initial, y or w is used (e.g., yi, wu, yu).
  • Separation: Syllable-dividing mark (') used if a, o, e start a syllable following another (e.g., pí'ǎo).
  • Tone Sandhi of "Bù": Tone remains unless followed by a $4\text{th}$ tone, where it becomes $2\text{nd}$ tone (bú).
  • Tone Sandhi of "Yī": Becomes $4\text{th}$ tone before $1\text{st}$, $2\text{nd}$, or $3\text{rd}$ tone. Becomes $2\text{nd}$ tone before a $4\text{th}$ tone. Remains $1\text{st}$ tone when used alone or in numbers.
• Neutral Tone: Read short and light. Its pitch depends on the preceding syllable: lower after $1\text{st}$, $2\text{nd}$, and $4\text{th}$ tones, but higher after a $3\text{rd}$ tone.

Chinese Characters Orthography

• Basic Strokes:
  1. Héng: Horizontal
  2. Shù: Vertical
  3. Piě: Left-falling
  4. Diǎn: Dot
  5. Nà: Right-falling
  6. Héngzhé: Horizontal-turning
  7. Shùzhé: Vertical-turning
  8. Shùgōu: Vertical hook
  9. Héngzhégōu: Horizontal-turning-hook
  10. Wògōu: Lying hook
  11. Shùwāngōu: Vertical curved hook
  12. Héngzhéwāngōu: Horizontal-turning curved hook
  13. Piězhé: Left-falling to turning
  14. Xiégōu: Slanting hook
  15. Tí: Rising
  16. Héngpiě: Horizontal to left-falling
  17. Piědiǎn: Left-falling to dot
• Stroke Order Rules:
  • Horizontal preceding vertical.
  • Left-falling preceding right-falling.
  • Top preceding bottom.
  • Left preceding right.
  • Outside preceding inside.
  • Middle preceding sides.
• Compound Structures:
  • Left-right / Left-middle-right.
  • Top-bottom / Top-middle-bottom.
  • Half-enclosure / Enclosure.
• Radicals:
  • 氵 (Sān diǎn shuǐ): Related to water (e.g., hàn, méi).
  • 讠(Yán zì páng): Related to language (e.g., yǔ, shéi).
  • 钅(Jīn zì páng): Related to metal (e.g., zhōng, qián).
  • 口 (Kǒu zì páng): Related to mouth (e.g., chī, hē).
  • 辶 (Zǒu zhī páng): Related to walking (e.g., zhè, sòng).
  • 门 (Mén zì kuàng): Related to rooms/doors (e.g., wèn, jiān).
  • 口 (Guó zì kuàng): Related to enclosure (e.g., guó, kùn).
  • 礻 (Shì zì páng): Related to deity or fortune (e.g., shì, zhù).
  • 阝(Ěr dāo páng): Related to landform/location (e.g., yuàn, yáng).
  • 亻(Dān rén páng): Related to person (e.g., nǐ, tā).
  • 女 (Nǚ zì páng): Related to women (e.g., jiě, mā).
  • 饣(Shí zì páng): Related to food (e.g., fàn, yǐn).
  • 月 (Ròu páng): Related to body/flesh (e.g., fú, pàng).
  • 扌(Tí shǒu páng): Related to hand actions (e.g., dǎ, zhǎo).
  • 艹 (Cǎo zì tóu): Related to plants (e.g., chá, cài).
  • 宀 (Bǎo gài tóu): Related to houses (e.g., ān, jiā).

Culture Notes

• Asking Age: Children under $10$ are asked "Nǐ jīnnián jǐ suì le?"; peers/young people are asked "Nǐ jīnnián duō dà le?"; elders are asked "Nín jīnnián duō dà niánjì le?" to show respect.
• Names: Chinese names place the family name first, followed by the given name. Single-character surnames are most common, but compound-character surnames like "Ōuyáng" exist. People are often addressed by surname and job (e.g., Lǐ lǎoshī).
• Communication Tools: Telephone numbers are $6\text{-}8$ digits; cell phone numbers are $11$ digits and read in a "$3\text{-}4\text{-}4$" pause pattern. The number "$1$" is read as "yāo" in phone contexts.