We have another Film Friday coming out a bit later today. In the meantime, if you're craving your daily hit of mandarin, check out this practice HSK test at the HSK Beginner level as defined by the Chinese government (for those of you new to Popup Chinese, this maps to roughly around our upper Elementary level). In a real test environment you would have 12 minutes to answer these fifteen questions, some of which are quite tricky, so good luck!
 said on
November 7, 2009
In question 3:

3.

圣诞节、新年___我的生日,丈夫都会送我一些小礼物。

I know 和 would also work, but is there a diference in tone? 跟 seems more written to me...

 said on
November 7, 2009
@toneandcolor,

Actually 跟 is more colloquial than 和. There's no huge difference though.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
November 14, 2009
I'm starting to tackle the HSK now. Foundation-level so am giving some of these a shot. Very difficult, but I can feel my Chinese getting better too, so knocking on wood.
Mark Lesson Studied