Some Thoughts Before My HSK 5 Test

So it’s Saturday morning, July 16th, 2022 and I’m a few hours away from partaking in my third Mandarin Chinese language proficiency test, the HSK 5.

It’s been just over one year since I took the HSK 4 test and scored 67% overall on the test, with my scores being 71 in Listening, 76 in Reading and 54 in writing for a total of 201 out of 300. It was good enough for a pass. You can read about the test here:

HSK 4 Test Results: 67%

…and read about my prep here:

Some thoughts before my HSK 4 test

Looking back on my posts throughout the years, I’m a little surprised to see that I had actually purchased the HSK 5 books way back in August 2020.

Stepping up to HSK 5

I didn’t start them, however, until a few months later, some time in October I believe. That means I’ve been working on this level for almost two years and, similar to then, have the same optimism that I can somehow make my way through the next level in a year’s time. Seeing that post, I’m not so sure.

To be sure, in that time I have made substantial progress. Reading is far easier than it was before (though I’m still struggling with my current test prep); vocab sticks a little better than ever before, mainly due to the fact that there aren’t as many “new” characters and, instead, many words are made up of characters I’ve encountered many times before; and I’m told my speaking fluency has improved, though my tones suck.

Knowing that, what are my weaknesses that I’m aware of going into the test?

First, writing the HSK 5 test does not translate into knowing how to speak very well. Nor listen. I still find myself confused by what people are saying and, although I can communicate and ask them to clarify, I’m also often met with looks of “Uhh, whaa?” It’s become so common that I almost don’t feel it’s strange, but it is something I need to work. (You’ll recall that I had been entertaining the idea of going through the HSKK test, the speaking portion of the HSK series, in an effort to help correct these speaking errors. I may revisit that idea going forward.)

Second, vocabulary has proven to be an issue again and again. I say this because most of the times I find myself lost in a listening or reading passage it’s because I’m unsure of what they’re saying. I have also noticed, however, that even if I do seem to understand what they are saying, I’m not always correct on their meaning or their conclusion. This confusion is more pronounced in the HSK test prep I’ve been doing and less so during day-to-day speaking since the test answer is either right or wrong.

Third, writing. As with the HSK 4 test, I will be taking the paper-based version of the HSK 5 test. Some will gasp and wonder wtf I’m thinking by taking this version. I could probably score better doing the computer-based version (since the pinyin keyboard will give you a selection of characters using the letters you type), but I guess I’m a sucker for punishment. I also don’t want to get complacent and neither do I want to skimp on learning the language (at least, not in that regard). 

As a result, the toughest part of the paper-based test will be the creative writing portion in which a picture is given about which I have to write 80 words. Doesn’t sound like a lot but in my few meagre tests, I’ve managed 55 words before drying up on what I wanted to say. There is another portion in which they give you a set of five words and you have to write a paragraph using those words. This, of course, comes down to vocabulary (do I know what the characters mean?) and then making sure I can write something that mostly makes sense with them (ie, fill in all the necessary words in between the target language?).

Since I’m a language consultant as it is, I’m very much aware that there are testing standards and those standards can be broadly interpreted. Writing something along the lines of “I literally don’t know what the hell this character means” is not only proof of creative output, but it is grammatically correct, too. And so standardized tests may seem to have a fault to them, but it is that “fault” that I’m pretty much depending on to get through the writing sections of this test! Ha!

Of course, remembering how to draw the various characters needed to convey meaning without relying on pinyin will be tough. Even if I did regress to pinyin, I’m not sure I’d even get the tonal markings correct!

So, then what am I expecting to achieve with this test?

First, I’m expecting to pass which means something greater than 60%. However, at the HSK 5 level a pass doesn’t really do much. Most universities in China or companies would want to see 70% or higher, ie, 210/300 or greater. Given my current mock test results, I’ll be pretty lucky if I hit a 60%. 

I’m not daunted but I am aware that, unlike HSK 4 in which I completed several mock test and had completed the textbooks and workbooks months before taking the test, this time round I’m not finished the HSK 5 textbooks nor the associated workbooks and I’ve only done a few mock tests. This might be a flag, but it also says to me that it does come down to vocabulary for the listening and reading sections and then being able to write something that makes sense using the words given and the words I know how to write. There is some hope because I’ve been practicing how to write Chinese characters since my first days in China.

This is my first post about learning Chinese:

Chinese Lessons
My interest in learning Chinese has slowly awakened, though I do so out of necessity instead of pure interest. Some might view that as a slight against my new host country but, all I can say in my defense is, in my experience, learning a new language takes time and it doesn’t pay to spend a lot of time on something that may not develop into much. Thus, I’m cautious about learning yet another language should I decide, or need, to move again.
 – Taken from “NOVEMBER 25, 2014: APEC, WAR, AND CHINESE LESSONS“

And things had improved only so slightly one year later in my “AN UPDATE ON THE PROGRESS OF MY LEARNING OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE“.

Has my view on the culture changed at all?

Despite what many might like to believe, I don’t feel the need to “go native” or adopt much if any of the Chinese culture in an effort to learn the language. Some people will chuff at that remark, many Chinese people would be offended, and others would simply say they don’t believe that.

Chinese, as a language, is a tool much like those learning English who want to go study or work overseas yet don’t hold the same political, cultural or familial beliefs as most “native” English speakers. In other words, I’m not studying the Mandarin Chinese language for the culture. I am studying it as a personal pursuit and, as I’ve mentioned many times before, I don’t want to be THAT foreigner who spent so many years in the country yet can’t say a word.

But then what is the end goal of learning Chinese?

I’m not unaware of the fact that there are a lot of Chinese people around the world, but many of those situated outside of the Mainland of China will usually speak at least a little bit of English or another language. Often, they might entertain a few words of Chinese, but unless you’re damn near fluent, you’re reverting back to English pretty quickly.

So my focus turns to what I could use the language for.

One idea that comes to mind is investing or stock trading. Many financial websites in North America have begun deploying Chinese versions, both simplified and traditional. Further, China A-Shares, though currently a restricted market, may be one such place to utilize the language and financial knowledge.

Second, broadcast. Now, I’m not looking to get big in China, particularly not really concerned about making a lot of Douyin videos, but if it helps cement my knowledge of the language, then why not at least try to make use of the language in the most modern way? That is, short videos. I do see plenty of room to be explored in taking what I’ve learned from my travels and interests and then trying to explain that in fluent Chinese. That would be a challenge!

(I have started this to a small degree by starting my own language vlog channel on YouTube. You can find it under the creatively named “Steven’s Language Acquisition Vlog”. The goal I have here is to both practice my Chinese presentation and broadcast skills while also building up a set of resources for English-language learners to quickly and efficiently build up their own language skills.)

But reading Dream of a Red Mansion or to eat only baozi for breakfast? No. You’ll have to find another person for that. The only book I’d like to read in the original is Sun Tzu’s Art of War, possibly Lao Tze’s I Ching, but that’s it. And those were both written in ancient, traditional Chinese, not modern simplified.

It’s at this stage of my Chinese language studies that I kinda feel that the language is like one of those old school video games, such as Super Mario Bros or Metroid, wherein once you finished it all the way through, you can then choose to go through it again but this time everything is just a little bit harder. Of course, unlike those video games, I hope my Chinese skills don’t just disappear from RAM memory once the power goes out.

So that’s how things stand right now, as of 10.52 am on Saturday morning. I was debating writing this very post as I am also thinking that I could spend just a little bit more time doing vocab review or whatever but, as I’ve always sorta thought on test days, if you don’t know it by now, you’re not going to change it just before the test.

With that, wish me luck as I’m off to the test centre to partake in the HSK 5 test!

jiayou! 加油！