new HSK exam levels

[gato]

The old HSK is (strangely) still available.

BLCU is probably trying to see if Hanban notices. Hehe.

[joshuawbb]

The old HSK is (strangely) still available. I'll be taking it next year in April in Nanjing.

It's available next year too? I didn't know if it was ending this year in China or not. Indeed, here in Xiamen anyway, the New HSK is not yet available. Both Xiamen and Hua Qiao University only offer the old one, and I'm taking the final 初中 this year next month. I'd be happy if I could still do it next year too, as I've invested a huge amount of time and practice into getting as high a mark as I can on the old HSK. I'd be happy to have the opportunity to take the Advanced sometime next year if I can.

And also, I'm not too excited about shelling out RMB 1050 for the Level 6 test, so I'd rather avoid that.

[Brandon263]

It's available next year too? I didn't know if it was ending this year in China or not. Indeed, here in Xiamen anyway, the New HSK is not yet available. Both Xiamen and Hua Qiao University only offer the old one, and I'm taking the final 初中 this year next month. I'd be happy if I could still do it next year too, as I've invested a huge amount of time and practice into getting as high a mark as I can on the old HSK. I'd be happy to have the opportunity to take the Advanced sometime next year if I can.

And also, I'm not too excited about shelling out RMB 1050 for the Level 6 test, so I'd rather avoid that.

I'm 100% positive it will be available next year, at least in Nanjing. You should probably confirm with your local unis, but they likely will also still offer it next year.

[joshuawbb]

Great, I'm happy about that now, thanks for your confirmation

I presume both Xiamen and Hua Qiao University will still offer it, given that between them they have held every one so far this year.

[hanxue]

Does anyone know how much you need to score on Level 6 to pass with "honors"? So far I only know 180/300 is a passing grade...

Oh, and about the Writing part: on the Hanban website it says "The test taker will be required to read a narrative article of about 1,000 characters within 10 minutes, and then rewrite it into a shorter article of about 400 characters within 35 minutes." Will they remove the narrative after the 10 mins have passed, or will you be able to consult it when writing the essay?

[renzhe]

AFAIK, they remove it, and you're not allowed to take notes while reading it either.

[hanxue]

Ok, now what kind of logic is that??!

[jbradfor]

Otherwise it would be too easy to "write" the essay by just coping the text and making minimal changes.

[travelgirl]

hei guys.I m also taking the old hsk this month.By accident i bought the book for the new hsk and know i m prepparing in that :mellow: .Is for level 4.Level 4 is which level in the old one?is considered to be elemantary?sth else,some folks here told me that the old hsk is not that valid anymore if you want to use it as certificate so you have to give another exams as well.Is it true?

[Brian US]

Will they ever fully implement the new HSK exam? I thought this was suppose to be done at the beginning of the year and all my friends have been taking the old one. The universities I have looked at still keep the old exam requirements. By the way, I'm in Beijing.

[crazillo]

I took level 4 in July and level 5 in October and although there was a significant increase of difficult and more abstract words, I still passed easily. However, I do not feel very advanced.

[BertR]

The Association of Chinese Teachers in German Speaking Countries seems to think that the new HSK is more like a joke. Take a look at

http://www.fachverband-chinesisch.de/fachverbandchinesischev/thesenpapiereundresolutionen/FaCh2010_ErklaerungHSK.pdf

The text is available in 3 languages: German, Chinese and English.

They believe "New HSK level 6" corresponds to the level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Although Hanban is clearly overestimating the level of their exams, I believe this organization is doing the opposite for 2 reasons. One is that I believe that there are many basic words missing in the New HSK word lists and hence everybody knowing the words from the lists, in practice actually knows many more words. The second reason is that they base themselves on the hours stated by Hanban to achieve these levels.

From the document: "The official data given by the Hanban envisage that level B2 (HSK 4) will be reached after just 2 years of learning with 2-4 hours of lessons per week (160-320

hours)."

I have trouble to believe you can reach this level with only 160-320 hours.

[gato]

Good for them. I wonder if Hanban has a reaction.

[James Johnston]

That's interesting. I imagine part of the difficulty is a failure or a reluctance to explicitly distinguish between comparing the input (amount of time and effort spent studying) and the outcome (language competence) in language learning.

For example if you are trying to introduce Chinese into the educational curriculum in a country you need to award students according to the effort put into studying the language, otherwise no one would choose to study Chinese over, say, French as they would be making life much more difficult.

On the other hand, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages was, I assume, largely set up for the purposes of measuring the ability of speakers of different, and mainly western, European languages where there is little need to distinguish between inputs and outcomes.

In a sense Hanban and these German teachers are arguing for the same thing: the particular difficulties of learning Chinese relative to European languages should be recognised and allowances made for this. In making generous comparisons between HSK levels and the CEFR, Hanban is reasoning that learners should be considered to have achieved higher levels on the CEFR despite knowing less vocab that learners of European languages. The German teachers are saying that it should instead simply be acknowledged that learning Chinese is a more difficult than European languages and therefore it should be accepted that it requires more time and effort to achieve the same level of fluency.

This reasoning assumes that the people learning Chinese are speakers of European languages, but the fact the new HSK is primarily aimed at speakers of European languages is demonstrated by the fact that Koreans and Japanese are, as I understand it, sticking with the old HSK.

[realmayo]

Koreans and Japanese are, as I understand it, sticking with the old HSK.

My former Korean classmates went back to Korea in the summer and all took the new HSK a few months ago. Said it was easy!

[roddy]

Hanban is reasoning that learners should be considered to have achieved higher levels on the CEFR despite knowing less vocab that learners of European languages.

Which shows they've got very little idea of what CEFR even is.

They'd have been better off ignoring the CEFR altogether - it's a nice idea to benchmark, but if you're going to say 'Oh, but Chinese is harder, so our students rate higher, m'kay?' you've missed the point - it's a measure of what the learner can do, not how many hours they've put in or how many gold stars they deserve. You can't go mucking about with that just because you've got an odd writing system.

Preaching to the choir, I know . . .

[gato]

I suspect that the showdown between BLCU and Hanban over the HSK is not over yet. As you can from the schedule here, the old HSK will still be administered within China in 2011. The key is within China, as Hanban runs the Confucius Institutes and controls the HSK given outside of China.

See also this announcement below from the Ministry of Education (MOE) dated June 2010 stating that there will a "period" ("一段时间") where both the old HSK and new HSK will be administered, each university should make its own choice on what test to use for determining the Chinese proficiency of its foreign applicants.

Note that this notice states a passing score on Level 4 of the new HSK is equivalent to a 3 on the old HSK (Elementary Certificate Level C), and passing score on Level 5 of the new HSK is equivalent to a 6 on the old HSK.

http://www.hsk.org.cn/news/news20100716_c.html

[gato]

Some people have been posting about the inside story of this fight over the HSK on the internet.

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6003c29b0100jz0j.html

汉办那点儿事儿（1-6）全（转）

(2010-07-07 16:34:30)

http://www.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/no110/1/52620.shtml

80年代北京YY大学的汉考中心创办了中国第一个汉语考试，当时是由HB（一个教育部的机构）作为直属领导，也就是负责给考试证书盖章，说明考试是国家性的。后来考试越做越大，钱当然是越来越多，这在利益面前，谁也禁不住诱惑，所以HB就以政府的身份要求汉考中心把考试的经营让给他们，那这群创办考试的元老们当然不干了，老子辛苦打下的江上，你一句话就要拿走？HB当然也怒了，我是GOVERNMENT机构，我的话你还敢不听了？于是恩怨就此结下，HB的办公地点也从北京YY大学迁走。

但事情可没这么简单。眼看国内的考试市场也越做越大，之后开发的一些汉语考试好像都牛不过HSK，HB又有想法了。HB这一届的领导许L据说是个超牛逼的女人，眼看没有合理依据把 HSK考试变成自己的，正好山寨风大吹，她也一声令下整了个山寨考试，名字也叫HSK，题型一样，证书一样，然后自己找一堆人来出题，管这些人懂不懂语言测试，能保证每月有一套题考就行（汉考中心的正版HSK每年只考4次）！

北京YY大学的一堆元老们当然坐不住了，但自己的校领导不挺，教育部的大领导不听，还能怎么办？幸好咱们中国好歹是个法制社会了，终于有人后知后觉想到了商标，咱们把HSK这个注册为自己的商标不就行了吗？结果一去工商局，才知道自己确实是后知后觉，人家GOVERNMENT机构还能比你不懂法？几年前早就趁你麻痹的时候去注册商标啦！幸好还有律师这个职业，专业就是专业，人家律师非常有信心，既然这个考试确实是你们汉考中心创办的，那收集了足够的证据，就能打赢官司，把HSK的商标拿回来！

[imron]

Haha 山寨HSK. So true. That's my new name for it

Everyone knows the old one is the real one.

[Sarevok]

hehe, I was about to post something similar, but imron beats me to it...

Up until now, I was occasionally using HSK毁容版 when referring to the New HSK in Chinese, but 山寨版 sounds way better :ph34r:

Quite an interesting read BTW, I knew there was something fishy going on (since I first heard about this new 山寨HSK and after reading several related topics here on the forums), but didn't imagine there was so much happening behind the scenes for that long (as described in great detail in the first blogpost). It only serves to confirm my opinion of Hanban, which has never been too positive...