#5 - What I did in China with no internet for 6 months

I studied Chinese.

-Flashcards while walking to work.
-Practice tests
-One day a week at work with no English.
-Grammar books
-Vocabulary lists

And then I took a Chinese language proficiency test.

I haven't got my results back yet, but I know I did pretty bad.


Basically, here's how it works...

-The HSK is the major Chinese language test.
-There are 3 primary levels: Basic, Elementary/Intermediate, Advanced
-Within each level, there are 3 breakdowns -A, B, or C

Passing the Advanced test means you have studied Chinese, in a classroom setting, for YEARS. Working knowledge of 8,000+ Chinese words (written, spoken, and listening). Nit-picky grammar rules are tested. To put this in perspective, you really only need 2000-3000 words to read a newspaper, and even less than than to have a spoken conversation with a native about almost anything.

(Also, keep in mind that you need to know WORDS, not CHARACTERS. You can know all of the characters in a sentence, but only know 1 or 2 words.)

The Middle level assumes you know somewhere around 3-4,000 words. Plus the associated grammar.

Basic level is around 1-2000 words, plus grammar. General rule is 300+ hours of in-class instruction.

Recently, they announced the "Threshold" test. Less than 200 hours of instruction, 600 words. All instructions in English. This is the test for dumbshits like me.

Boss lady called for me. Threshold test costs 4x the other tests. The person at HSK actually recommended that I NOT take it. Okay. I'll do the Basic test in December. Boss said she would pay for it, if I took it in April. Uhhh.. Okay.

This gave me one month, to increase my reading skill from 200 or so words to 2000 words. I needed to increase my grammar knowledge from that of a 2 year old to that of a high school kid.

On top of that, the Basic test is graded on a curve. So, even if I got 87% correct, if everyone else got 97%, I would still fail.

I won't bore you with details right now, but suffice it to say, I'm not feeling real good about my chances.

I DID increase my reading skill by triple what I could do before I started cramming. (But, 600 words out of the necessary 2000 isn't too good.)

And, I CAN actually speak in reasonably not bad grammar if I have a chance to think before I talk. (But, this test doesn't have a spoken section.) My pronunciation is still absolutely atrocious though.

And, if people talk slower than usual, and if I have a chance to translate it in my head, I can usually understand the general idea, even if I don't understand each individual word. (Unfortunately for me, the test is timed. No real chance to think about what you just heard.)


So.... We'll see.