"levels" of Chinese

[murrayjames]

7 hours ago, Weyland said:

But, then again, when would you use e.g. 密封 in your writing? 

 

I have seen the word in fiction writing before, too.

 

Someone should write a short story and call it《密封蜜蜂》 (The Hermetically Sealed Bee).

[Jim]

29 minutes ago, murrayjames said:

Someone should write a short story and call it《密封蜜蜂》

And a sequel, 《密封蜜蜂弥缝其阙》

[realmayo]

I actually think that there must be plenty of people who can be justifiably proud of what their level of Chinese allows them to do in China, even if their Chinese in itself is quite weak.

 

I also think that one downside of the new HSK is that people assume that Level 6 is a kind of natural level at which to end formal study, or classroom study, or textbook study, or whatever. But it's not - it's actually just a very arbitrary - and rather modest - level. I can't imagine that people studying, say, German, would believe that once you get to a HSK-6-equivalent level in German that there's no point spending any more time in the classroom.

 

 

 

[Guest]

As other people have said, The Chinese teaching industry (government attached) have clearly inflated the 'levels' of the language to avoid scaring people away from it (which is understandable to a point considering their intentions for extending softpower influence, etc etc). the HSK tests are made in such a way that they can be gamed by anyone with enough prep materials and plenty of time for memorizing words and grammar structures. I myself along with other people managed to pass HSK4 (more than 200 points) in around 5-6 months, I have 3 friends who have passed HSK5 in 8-9 months and I even got to meet someone who passed HSK6 in a year (I don't know how though)

 

I think this picture seems more or less reliable depending on how do you see the HSK exams

It takes many years of continuous studies to get into a level in which you can comfortably live, study and work in any chinese speaking territory. I'm currently an engineering student and trust me, that convo about the spicy food of 北方 or even the 科技汉语 classes about math operations and highschool concepts can only help you in the valley next to the everest of Chinese learning.  

[anonymoose]

13 hours ago, realmayo said:

I can't imagine that people studying, say, German, would believe that once you get to a HSK-6-equivalent level in German that there's no point spending any more time in the classroom.

 

I guess it depends on what the primary motivation for learning the language in the first place is. For people who do so for practical reasons, I think it is common to stop actively learning at a fairly basic level.

 

In my experience, for example, many Chinese students wanting to study in the UK work on their English until they get a 6.0 in the IELTS exam (or whatever the specific university requirement is). At this level, they can just about give a spiel about delicious food, how their hobbies are sleeping and eating, and that China has 5000 years of history. Yet when they land in the UK and are finally in an environment in which their English could flourish, they stop active learning. Further improvement, if any, is passive.

[realmayo]

Perhaps I should have phased it better:

 

English people studying German formally wouldn't think that an HSK6-equivalent level was sufficiently high for them to stop studying German formally.

[NewEnglander]

On 10/27/2019 at 3:36 PM, 889 said:

A bit like the way people who sell clothes play around with sizing to make customers forget they've put on a few pounds.

Known as vanity sizing. Began with women's clothing but it eventually made its way into men's clothing as well.  They slipped 2-5% spandex into the material....typically jeans.