Communicative activities at www.breakingnewsenglish.com

Halal, which basically means permissible, has been widely associated in the west with food in recent years. It's a significant topic in the Arabic language and culture, so ArabicPod deemed it fit to present a lesson about it.

Today we are pleased to publish another sample HSK test for students preparing to take China's official mandarin proficiency exam for the first time. The fifteen questions on this mock exam will test your knowledge of the same vocabulary and grammar points found on the official HSK test. So put aside five minutes and see how good your Chinese actually is. Would you pass the real exam?

Ever been asked a question you didn't feel like answering because of indifference to the plight of your fellow man? In this Chinese lesson for Absolute Beginners, we focus on the art of deflecting questions. As anyone who has lived or worked in China knows, this is a critical skill for maintaining your sanity here. We're sure you'll be able to use this right away.

Since we've been getting a lot of new people to the site lately, it is probably worth mentioning that our goal with the Absolute Beginner level is making each lesson accessible to people without any background in mandarin, Chinese. This lesson is a bit more difficult than most at this level though, so if you're a total beginner, we recommend clicking through to our text page to read our annotated transcript while listening to our dialogue and podcast.

Communicative activities at www.breakingnewsenglish.com

The HSK hit the snooze button with a groan. In retrospect, the Chinese proficiency test should never have picked up this early morning teaching job. There had been a clear conflict of interest there, but the test-prep school had been willing to overlook it and the job seemed an easy way of making money on the side. Also - at least as the HSK test told itself - it really was the most qualified teacher for the students anyway.

And yet, instead of a class of bright students eager to imbibe its wisdom, the HSK found its class a motley assortment of students with little real interest in the Chinese language. It was no wonder the school had had such a hard time finding a qualified teacher. The serious students had already moved almost entirely online, where materials were more abundant, far less expensive and more personal. Who could compete with the Internet?