Yeah, among other things... I still struggle with characters - I mean if I see a character, I can easily copy it, but when I have to write it off the top of my head I feel like I have never seen it before! That is extremely frustrating!

Totally agree - one of the best things about teaching is the absence of this 9 to 5 system. What do you think the most challenging thing about the teaching position in China is? I've heard a lot about their tendency to work overtime and all that jazz...

It is indeed tough. I'd say that the whole world is not in a good place right now, I mean there are military conflicts everywhere, environmental issues and all the rest. Hopefully it will get better, though I doubt that it's on the cards.

That's a fascinating choice - I haven't read it yet (and now is probably not the best time taking into account its overall despondent ambience). I've read and reread a few of his novels in the past years (a fun fact: school students have to read 'Crime and punishment' when they're about 15 y.o. here, according to the school curriculum). I think the one that really stroke a chord with me was 'The Idiot'. I actually read it upon my return from Switzerland and I discovered a lot of things that I could relate to and that still resonate with me.

Yeah, sure thing! I usually have a bit of free time on my hands. :D

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Thank you! c:

I couldn't agree more! I'm now taking a break before starting the HSK 4 textbook, and I feel that my pronunciation skills are fading away...

Sounds impressive! And how is it to work at a university in China?

Well, nowadays I work as an English tutor - as a matter of fact, I worked at a Russian university at some point, and overall it wasn't a pleasant experience.

I would say that we are balancing on the verge between some weird stability and point of no return: on the one hand, everything is strangely normal - people work, do their everyday stuff and so forth, on the other hand - everything is so dramatically different and who even knows what is going to happen next. :')

What's your favourite Dostoevsky's work?

You too!

Hey there! No problem at all - life has indeed been too chaotic...

That's funny - I actually picked up my paper certificate yesterday. :D So yeah, I took HSK3 in March (not in October as it had been initially planned) - passed it with ~275 points. The worst part was writing, I just screwed up some characters. So the next step for me is to take HSK4, though it sounds insurmountable right now. But I still hope to get there step by step. :D

Fantastic - what are you teaching? Well, that sounds like a plan! Good luck to you, too!

Well, it's certainly complicated! I took HSK 2 in May and was initially planning to take HSK 3 in October - silly me! Then I decided to put it off till December... About a month ago I gave up and found a tutor, because self-study is just not enough for me anymore.
As for my studies, yeah, every week I try to cover a unit of the HSK Standard textbook.

So now I'm thinking if I really want to take the exam this year and get a very mediocre result or if it makes more sense to take the exam in March or so with, hopefully, a much better score.
But I totally agree, at some point I couldn't notice any progress, and it made (and still makes) me a bit frustrated. What are your thoughts? When are you planning to take the exam?

Thank you, what a good heart

Thank you

I believe they are two different tests - HSK includes written tasks (listening, reading, writing) and HSKK is all about speaking comprehension, though now one has to take HSKK if they take a computer-based HSK (which is scary :D).
谢谢您！(●'◡'●)

Maybe Xiu Xiu a fucking good band