New York Chinese Regents Examination. Does anyone have any Info on it?

[keyrane]

Hi. I live in NYC and in High School at the end of taking a language for 3 years, you have to take a regents examination.

I have searched for an actual Chinese Regents Exam online and I can't find one. So I have no idea what in the world is on it. So If you have ever taken it or seen one, please let me know.

Oh, by the way, how exactly do you study for a Chinese exam? Not like class exams, but proficiency exams. I can read and write characters well, but putting them in sentences, that’s one problem. And my school doesn’t help by switching text books. Currently in level 2, we have used and finished 你好book 2, and switched half way during the year to New Chinese Practical Reader 2, which has many characters that we didn’t learn in level 1. But I have managed so far.

And then my listening comprehension and my speech is like rock bottom. I am the only person of non Asian descent in the classroom and I don't have any family members who speak fluent Chinese at home, meanwhile, the other kids do. Most of my peers and classmates who can speak and listen often shun me or speak in Cantonese when we are learning Mandarin in school.

Agg... Maybe I should have stayed in Spanish....

[OneEye]

Check my blog for lots of tips on learning approaches. It is working very well for me so far. I'm guessing you have another year since it's summer, so you should be able to make plenty of progress if you dedicate yourself to a sensible method (rather than just some textbook).

[Xiao Kui]

I went to high school in NYC, too (long time ago). Stay in the Chinese class, other races have to represent, too. My sister took Japanese when she was in high school and she had higher grades than all the Asians. My school, Bayside, didn't have Chinese - I took Spanish. Not till after college did I discover how interesting Chinese was. When I was in NYC it was a language that I felt locked out of, not being Asian. Foreign languages always seemed exclusive to me because classmates would speak them when they didn't want you to hear.. so I wouldn't have even thought of taking it even if it had been offered. The ironic thing abt it is that in mainland China, Chinese tend to give visitors of non-Asian races preferential treatment above Chinese-Americans, so the discrimination works both ways.

I f I have one language learning tip for a New Yorker it would be - don't block out foreign languages, learn to eavesdrop! When I lived in NYC I heard so many different languages that I was conditioned to block them out. This was a major setback when I began learning Chinese because listening to native speakers speak to each other is a great way to improve your conversation skill, but if you're in the habit of blocking them out then you miss a lot of great learning opportunities. Don' t limit yourself because you're of a different ethnic background than your classmates. You don't need their permission to learn their language, and you can excel ahead of them if you don't let their attitude bother you. According to our teacher, I'm the most advanced learner in my all-Asian-except-for-me Chinese class right now.

Having said all that, I have met plenty of Chinese New Yorkers who are very encouraging about my study of Chinese, some of them even express admiration and respect. When I go back to NYC to visit now I have some amazing conversations. I have been able to help Chinese immigrants find their way around the subways on numerous occasions. I don't know why but it seems like other Chinese don't always want to help them or they are embarrassed to ask. Their faces always light up when I talk to them in Chinese and help them to get to where they're going. I have also had some neat conversations with older Chinese who have been in the US for decades and never learned to speak English. One lady had been in the states for 20+ years and from what I gathered I was one of the first non-Chinese she had ever had a 2 way conversation with. Besides the practical value of knowing Chinese for your resume or business purposes, those everyday encounters make it a lot of fun.

As for the Regents, I think the best way to study for them is take an old test as a practice test, that's what all those Barron's books are full of but I don't think they have a Chinese regents book yet. This link has many tests available online, but unfortunately no Chinese regents. From what I understand the Chinese regents is relatively new. Maybe you should ask your teacher where you can find study resources- he/she should be able to help, it's to their advantage professionally if their students get good grades.

[trien27]

xiao kui

I live in New York. I lived in New York for years, but when I went to high school, all they had was French, Spanish or Italian Regents. No Asian Regents. So I can't help you.

But if you live in New York, you could check out the libraries. They have a lot of Study Aid materials. Maybe go to the library in Chinatown, Flushing or somewhere in Brooklyn. Others might not have Study Aid material on Chinese Regents. And since they changed the SATs, they might have changed the Regents as well.

Limiting myself? I've studied Spanish, Greek, Norwegian, plus many others. But I'm only fluent in English and my native language, Chinese.

Maybe you could give me your email address so we could meet only if you are over 21?

[JimmySeal]

The Chinese exam is probably fairly new and that would explain why there is little information on it, but I think it's safe to assume that it would be similar to other foreign language Regents exams. Looks like most of them consist of a speaking portion, listening comprehension, reading comprehension and writing.

You can see past tests for five languages here:

http://www.nysedregents.org/testing/slpexams.html

Your teacher can probably give you more specific information on the Chinese test.

One way to work on your listening skills is to watch a lot of movies in Chinese. You can buy DVDs on eBay that have Mandarin audio and Chinese subtitles. You can watch them a few times with the Chinese subtitles on (this will help your reading too) then watch them with the subtitles off. Don't worry if you don't know every word you see/hear in the movie. Try to figure out the words you don't know from observing the situation. This will train you well to pick up vocabulary in general.