Section outline

  • General

    Welcome to this Mandarin Chinese course for HSK Level 2, or CEFR level A2. Made up of 12 units, it is shorter than Level 1: this is a quirk of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. But it is no less rich in language and culture teaching, and in particular it contains more grammar points.

    To access the complete course (with the dynamic exercises and tests on all 12 units): please enroll on the individual enrollment page for the new Level 2.
    You will then have access to the interactive activities (exercises and tests) that will help you learn Chinese easily and prepare for the HSK Chinese proficiency test.

    A special feature of this course is listening comprehension: more varied voices and a gradual increase in the speaking speed of the Chinese speakers, until you reach the pace of authentic conversation. We have kept long silences between sentences. Scientifically, it is better to listen to speakers at their natural speed, but with longer pauses so that the brain can take in the content more easily. Listening to slow diction does not help you progress effectively.

    So feel free to pause the recordings and listen to them several times.

    We wish you good progress and, above all, a lot of pleasure in discovering this level.

  • Unit 1 - Shanghai, here I come!

    Header image for Unit 1: arriving at Shanghai station early in the morning on the night train

    Objectives:
    • Asking for and giving directions (left, right, straight ahead)
    • Getting around by subway and by bus
    • Locating a place (in front, behind, next to)
    • Linking two actions (going somewhere to do something)

    New characters: 12
    New words: 17
    Grammar:
    • The coverb 从: the starting point
    • The coverb 往: the direction
    • The position words 左 and 右
    • Serial verbs
    • 怎么 + verb: asking about the means
    • The simple directionals 回来 / 回去
    Activities: 23

  • Unit 2 - The "Come back!" restaurant

    Header image for Unit 2: breakfast at the "Come back!" restaurant

    Objectives:
    • Walking into a restaurant and ordering a dish or a drink
    • Counting people and things with the right classifier
    • Offering a choice, then giving advice
    • Saying what is best

    New characters: 9
    New words: 20
    Grammar:
    • The classifiers 位, 条, 间 and the borrowed classifier 包
    • The alternative question A 还是 B?
    • Advice with 还是…吧
    • 什么的 to end a list
    • The superlative 最 and the verb 点 "to order"
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    Activities: 0

  • Unit 3 - The Shanghai shopping mall

    Header image for Unit 3: the Shanghai shopping mall

    Objectives:
    • Naming colors and talking about clothes
    • Comparing two things and putting a figure on the difference
    • Reacting to a price and paying with your phone
    • Counting beyond a thousand

    New characters: 9
    New words: 13
    Grammar:
    • Comparison with 比: A is more … than B
    • Specifying the difference in a comparison
    • Saying "not as… as" with 没有
    • 这么 / 那么: demonstratives of degree
    • 万: counting in tens of thousands
    • 也太…了 and 有点
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    Activities: 0

  • Unit 4 - Interesting or not?

    Header image for Unit 4: the "没意思" milk tea shop on a Shanghai street

    Objectives:
    • Asking for and giving the meaning of a word in Chinese
    • Saying that something is about to start
    • Exclaiming that it's already late
    • Telling about your day and reporting what people said

    New characters: 16
    New words: 20
    Grammar:
    • The 意思 family: meaning, interest and embarrassment
    • Imminence with 快要…了
    • 都…了 and 已经: saying "already"
    • ABAB reduplication of two-syllable verbs
    • 就: then, so
    • Narration and the coverb 对
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    Activities: 0

  • Unit 5 - The weekly quiz

    Header image for Unit 5: the weekly dictation in the classroom

    Objectives:
    • Judging how an action is done: well or badly, fast or slowly
    • Asking why
    • Saying what you do every day and every week
    • Encouraging and reassuring someone

    New characters: 10
    New words: 17
    Grammar:
    • The descriptive complement with 得
    • 为什么: asking why
    • 每: every, each
    • 这样 and 那样: demonstratives of manner
    • Verb + 给: an action directed at someone
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    Activities: 0

  • Unit 6 - Exercise is good for your health

    Header image for Unit 6: two students running on campus at sunrise

    Objectives:
    • Talking about sports: running, swimming, playing ball
    • Comparing how two people do the same thing
    • Saying how many times a week you do something
    • Asking whether a place is far or near
    • Asking someone to do something with you

    New characters: 17
    New words: 18
    Grammar:
    • Comparison in the descriptive complement
    • Verb copying with verb-object compounds
    • 次: the verbal classifier
    • 经常: frequency
    • 对…好: good for
    • The coverb 跟: with
    • The coverb 离: distance
    • 怎么 + negation: surprise
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    Activities: 0

  • Unit 7 - Taking your medicine

    Header image for Unit 7: Gao Xiaoyu brings a cup of hot water and some medicine to Bai Xue, sick in bed

    Objectives:
    • Saying how you feel and naming your symptoms
    • Understanding dosage instructions at the pharmacy
    • Saying that an action has reached its result, or has missed it
    • Forbidding, advising against, telling someone to stop
    • Reassuring someone who is sick

    New characters: 9
    New words: 16
    Grammar:
    • The resultative complements 懂, 错, 完, 好
    • 别 + verb: the negative imperative
    • 可能: probability
    • Sentences with a subject-verb comment: symptoms
    • 有时…有时: alternation
    • 一点儿都不: "not at all"
    • 就: immediate consequence
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    Activities: 0

  • Unit 8 - October in Beijing

    Header image for Unit 8: Bai Xue, Gao Xiaoyu and Yueyue watching a calligrapher write with water in a Beijing park in October

    Objectives:
    • Describing the weather
    • Saying what is going on before your eyes
    • Saying how something is done
    • Breaking a group down with "some… others"
    • Encouraging someone who doesn't dare

    New characters: 10
    New words: 18
    Grammar:
    • The aspect particle 着: the durative
    • 正在…呢: the action in progress
    • The particle 地: manner, and the trio 的 / 得 / 地
    • Adjective reduplication (慢慢, 高高兴兴)
    • 有的…有的: "some… others"
    • The 会 of prediction
    • Going further: V着V着
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    Activities: 0

  • Unit 9 - Xiaoyu's birthday

    Header image for Unit 9: three generations around the table for Gao Xiaoyu's birthday, with the bowl of longevity noodles in the center

    Objectives:
    • Wishing someone a happy birthday
    • Giving a present and saying thank you
    • Asking someone to do something
    • Offering your help, and politely turning down the help you're offered
    • Saying you do something yourself

    New characters: 11
    New words: 16
    Grammar:
    • The pivotal construction: 让 and 请
    • Double objects with 给
    • 自己: the reflexive pronoun
    • 帮 and the verb-object compound 帮忙
    • 别…了: "stop …ing"
    • 上面 after a noun
    • 就 + 会: the promised consequence
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    Activities: 0

  • Unit 10 - A Sunday in June

    Header image for Unit 10: on a campus bench one Sunday in June, Bai Xue tells Gao Xiaoyu that her parents are coming from France in July

    Objectives:
    • Announcing news
    • Saying what you've already done, and what you've never done
    • Talking about a trip: flight time, hotel, distance
    • Qualifying a statement, the Chinese way
    • Placing a childhood memory in time and setting a deadline

    New characters: 7
    New words: 16
    Grammar:
    • The experiential aspect 过
    • Concession with 虽然…但是
    • 时, the short form of …的时候
    • 从小就: ever since childhood
    • 到…前: before a deadline
    • 好好 + verb: well, fully
    • 但, the short "but"
    • 多 + verb: more
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    Activities: 0

  • Unit 11 - Beijing Airport

    Header image for Unit 11: the arrivals hall of an international airport in Beijing, with its two escalators and a plane behind the glass wall

    Objectives:
    • Guiding someone remotely, over the phone, through a place they don't know
    • Describing a movement from the speaker's point of view
    • Finding your way in a Chinese airport and subway
    • Stating a cause and its consequence
    • Weighing the pros and cons, then deciding

    New characters: 5
    New words: 15
    Grammar:
    • Simple directionals: the full paradigm
    • 因为…所以…: cause and consequence
    • 每 + duration: regular frequency
    • 还是…吧: deciding after weighing things up
    • 就要…了: imminence, with a date
    • 那么 + quantity or duration
    • 从 + place + simple directional
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    Activities: 0

  • Unit 12 - Chinese New Year

    Header image for Unit 12: around a big table, the teacher's family and the foreign students wrap dumplings under red lanterns, on a winter evening in Beijing

    Objectives:
    • Recounting an evening afterward, in the order it happened
    • Linking two actions that follow each other immediately
    • Introducing someone and understanding the Chinese naming system
    • Getting confirmation of what you think you know
    • Making a wish and wishing someone a happy New Year

    New characters: 9
    New words: 13
    Grammar:
    • 一…就…: "as soon as…"
    • The patient subject: what you're talking about comes first
    • 姓, 叫, 姓名 and 小名: the Chinese name
    • 是不是: asking for confirmation
    • 因为 moved to the end of the sentence
    • 希望 + clause
    • 打来: the directional within the verb-object compound
    • 一点都不: "not at all"
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    Activities: 0

  • HSK mock test with random questions and a time limit

    Image for the HSK mock tests These HSK mock tests randomly draw on all the Level 2 questions, with the time limits set in the real HSK tests:
    - 17 minutes for listening comprehension
    - 25 minutes for reading comprehension
    - 10 minutes for written expression.

    Note: in the real HSK test, the recording for each question is played twice and the questions run on without any possibility of pausing. For greater realism, I encourage you to listen to each recording twice.

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    Activities: 0

  • Certificate of completion

    To obtain the certificate of completion, you must meet all of the following conditions:

    - achieve a final course grade of 16/20 or higher

    - pass the listening comprehension test of the HSK mock test

    - pass the reading comprehension test of the HSK mock test

    - pass the written expression test of the HSK mock test

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    Activities: 0