The classification of the level of difficulty: we classify the vocabulary into 6 levels according HSK (Chinese Proficiency Test) levels. This is done by referencing to our frequency of Chinese Characters' usage, HSK vocabulary and our experience. This small improvement has significant implications. Situational classification: We classified the most common vocabulary into 50 categories according to situational daily usage. This classification will enable the beginner to improve their vocabulary in the short time according the situational need. It will also help a lot for student to do revision. Some students call them as “LIFESAVING" book before their examinations. In order to illustrate how to some hard vocabularies, we also give the situational sentences and conversations to improve student understanding. Camping: we group the same topic vocabulary together, like camping which allow you to focus on improving specific topic in short time. This is very helpful when you are writing an article or preparing a speaking, like IGCSE's role play. This idea is similar to my advisor 张田若 “集中识字,分类习作,大量阅读” thought. The differences are I am focusing on vocabulary (phrase) instead of Characters, classified by HSK level and expanded by topics, targeting at speaking correct Chinese sentence instead of write the good article, which is the challenging task for non-mandarin speaker. The significance of classify the vocabulary into 6 levels according HSK. For us as editors and teacher to prepare the articles, we can give the right article to right students, not too hard or too easy by referring to the levels. We can improve their study step by step. We set the reachable bar, not too low or high, which is encouraging rather discouraging. For students, the classification of level of difficulty will enable the learner to differentiate the phrases you must know how to write and the phrases that you need to read only. You can evaluate your progress by referring to the levels. It is benchmarking. Furthermore, we encourage students to expand vocabulary to higher level and consolidate the vocabulary in the lower level. For example, you are student in final stage preparing IGCSE examination which equivalent to HSK 4. You should know the meaning of most vocabulary HSK 1 to HSK 4. If you see HSK 5 or even HSK 6 vocabulary, you are motivated to reach higher, who knows these harder vocabulary will not appear in your reading papers ( actually it happened many time the vocabulary appeared in the past papers are out of range). If you see HSK 1 to HSK 3 vocabulary, you are required to write them out in additional know how to read and the meaning. This is the answer to annoying question raised by many students “Should I know how to write them?” The 6 levels classification provide a grid to evaluate students’ progress by teacher or self-assessment by students. Such classification will enable students go faster as too much memorize of writing of Chinese characters will slow down their progress. It takes us six month to do this small but significant modification, a painful task for us but for goodness of students. By providing the best English translation available on the world (not bragging, no jokes, the best, seeing is believing), HSK classification reference and past papers sentences illustration, we created more than just a dictionary, a vocabulary list or a reference book, Edeo (Educational Video) courses. Our practical and unique approach integrated with our IT system seamlessly will bring you the learning experience you may never know! Grab our courses and success in your examinations! David YAO, Founder of https://edeo.biz/shop & www.legoomandarin.com July 28, 2016 (Revised on January 2019, November 14, 2020)
