Assess my HSKK（高级）

[arreke]

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XOTIyMTM2MjAw.html

If there are Chinese students on this forum, could you please assess my Chinese speaking?

For the current moment I'm trying to practice 回答问题 part of HSKK（高级）which requires 2.5 minutes of speaking, I've managed only 1.5 ))

According to HSKK考试评分说明(自测用), following is the assessment criteria for 回答问题 :

高：考生能就问题做出回答，内容丰富，表达流利，有少量停顿、重复、语法错误。 

中：考生能就问题做出回答，但信息量较少，停顿、重复、语法错误较多。 

低：考生答非所问，信息量少且不连贯。

Could you please assess my speaking by those criterias and tell me what I should work on to improve my speaking and pass 高级 ?

PS: Is there a BBCode for Youku Video on this forum ?

[ceciliamiao]

I'm not certified in any ways to judge your speaking. But as a native speaker, I think your story was great and pretty fluent. I would say above 中 and near 高. Best of luck!

[Angelina]

Off topic:

Your Mandarin sounds too Russian, try to immitate Chinese people.

[歐博思]

Agree with Angelina -- and 'sounding more Chinese' in pronunciation IMO is probably one of the hardest aspects of learning Chinese.

 

Tones were a bit all over the place, but with the right 'Chinese sound', you'd at worst just sound like you're from Xinjiang   .

 

As an encouraging bit before the test: I completely blanked and said nothing in the 'listen and repeat' section, and still passed with a 66% (full marks in the other two sections). I also practice 朗讀 like it's my job though so... nonetheless the 'bar' doesn't seem to be set very high overall....

 

Addendum to this question: where can we find a good variety of quality, male voices to emulate? Think Chinese Morgan Freeman. 

[Demonic_Duck]

Addendum to this question: where can we find a good variety of quality, male voices to emulate? Think Chinese Morgan Freeman.

 

There was a thread about this before. I've yet to hear of any well-known Chinese person with quite the same combination of instant recognisability and sonorous melodic quality as Morgan Freeman, though.

 

@OP: agree with other posters that your accent is quite strong. Even though grasp of pronunciation is only included in the criteria for the 朗读 section, I'd be kinda surprised if it didn't matter at all in the other sections. Your tones are OK, it's generally at least recognisable which tone you're speaking (which is more than a lot of Chinese learners can say), even though the contours don't sound quite spot on. Still, it might well be worth paying attention to this aspect and doing repetition drills with audio you have access to (CDs from textbooks etc.), and posting the results on some website for people to evaluate (could be here, or better still one of several websites designed for getting feedback from natives - the link in my signature is one such site).

 

I'd agree with ceceliamiao that, based on the criteria, you seem to be hitting between 中 and 高 (but make sure you fill up the time limit - I assume it doesn't matter if it's 废话, as long as the 废话 is showcasing your language abilities). But I'm neither a qualified judge nor a native speaker.

 

Also, is this a real example of a question from HSKK 高级? I assumed the 高级 questions would be a bit more involved...

 

 

PS: Is there a BBCode for Youku Video on this forum ?

 

You can't embed any videos here, as far as I know.

[arreke]

Thank you all for your replies ))

I'll work on my pronunciation, it sounds terrible ((

And special thx for GoVoluble, it seems quite promising...

[Demonic_Duck]

It's certainly not terrible, I've heard much worse. What we're suggesting is more like 精益求精

[Angelina]

Exactly, it's not terrible.

 

I had a class today where they explained how Chinese students learning English would stress the wrong syllables. (Some syllables in English should be weak, some should be strong and native speakers tend to have a stress pattern different from learners. That is why when we hear these students we say their English does not sound native-like).

 

Pay attention to your sentences, even if your tones and consonants are excellent in isolation, you might not get the right way Mandarin should be pronounced. 

[歐博思]

^this is what I meant -- and sentence level tonality is a b*tch

[arreke]

 

 

What we're suggesting is more like 精益求精 

 

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XOTU0MTE0NjU2.html

 

After practicing on my pronunciation tried to record myself again, could you please compare it with the previous video and say if it's getting better or not ?

I still fill that my Chinese sounds too Russian though.

[Demonic_Duck]

Main things that stuck out for me this time:

 

狗 is [gǒu], not [gōu] or [gòu]

猫 is [māo], not [máo] or [mào]

高兴 is [gāoxìng], not [gāoxīng]

相反 is [xiāngfǎn], not [xiángfǎn]

那 is [nà], not [nǎ]

发现 is [fāxiàn], not [fáxiàn]

别人 is [biérén], not [bièrén]

开始 is [kāishǐ], not [kǎishi].

 

Other than that, I'd recommend paying attention to aspirated consonants such as [t], [k], [p] - make sure you're aspirating them enough, there should be a little jet of air let out with each one. Also, make sure the difference between and [sh] is clear - your 所以 sounded more like [shuǒyǐ].

 

It doesn't seem like you used the target vocabulary (萍水相逢), though I have no idea how you would relate that to preferring cats or dogs anyway.

 

I only just noticed this, but the text you pasted at the beginnings of the videos for mark bands say “中级” for the first video you posted, and “初级” for the second one. It's kinda confusing due to two of the bands within each one also being labelled “高” and “中”. Are you sure the questions you've been using have been from the 高级 test? The questions themselves don't seem very 高级...

[arreke]

It doesn't seem like you used the target vocabulary (萍水相逢), though I have no idea how you would relate that to preferring cats or dogs anyway.

 

I only just noticed this, but the text you pasted at the beginnings of the videos for mark bands say “中级” for the first video you posted, and “初级” for the second one. It's kinda confusing due to two of the bands within each one also being labelled “高” and “中”. Are you sure the questions you've been using have been from the 高级 test? The questions themselves don't seem very 高级...

Thanks for the advices, I will keep working on tones and those sounds you have mentioned above.

I didn't use 萍水相逢, actually I found it difficult to concentrate on two tasks at the same time, so next time I will just eliminate the word to use and will pay attention to pronunciation instead.

You are right, those questions are not from 高级, I still have difficulties with answering 高级 questions, do you think I should try with 高级 questions anyway ?

[Demonic_Duck]

Well, if your aim is to take the 高级 test as you stated in your first post, you're going to have to start some time! On the other hand, if your focus at the moment is purely on pronunciation, it may be worthwhile continuing to practice with the lower level questions. It all depends on how much time you have to play with until you intend to take the test.

[rezaf]

还凑合。 How important is pronunciation for them? If it's not that important then don't worry about it because your Chinese is quite fluent but it takes some serious work to correct your pronunciation habits.

[arreke]

How important is pronunciation for them?

I am also preparing for the IELTS Test, according to the http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/IELTS_Speaking_Assessment_Criteria_Public.pdf, Pronunciation is one of the 4 main criterias.

Therefore, in my opinion, pronunciation is essential in HSKK as well.

Unfortunately for the current moment my English sucks, just like my Chinese )) in both I have strong Russian accent ((

 

[shuoshuo]

My Chinese teacher once told me "there is no "ummm...." nor "uhhhh...." in Chinese. There's a tip for you!

I did HSKK intermediate last year. Another teacher told us the same thing, she said foreigners like to vocalize the fact that they are stuck i.e. use of "ummms and uhhs" while thinking. The teacher told us that if we are thinking of what to say next, pause for a very brief moment.

You've inspired me to try HSKK advanced.

I will hopefully be attempting HSK6 some time this year.

[Demonic_Duck]

The teacher told us that if we are thinking of what to say next, pause for a very brief moment.

Bad idea when talking to impatient people - they'll just verbalise what they think your next thought will be for you.

 

A better idea is to learn different filler strategies (i.e. other than "ummm" etc.)

[arreke]

You've inspired me to try HSKK advanced.

Well, wish you good luck, and thanks for this sentence, never thought my bullshit Chinese could inspire somebody ))

Technics required for HSKK are totally different from HSK, for instance, the vocabulary for HSK6 is more academic and have many words rarely used in spoken Chinese.

I've been thinking of starting a video diary of my regular practice, mostly for building some statistics and to see my progress. You can do the same, so it will help to share with others different strategies we use to improve Chinese. For example here is my diary for IELTS:

[shuoshuo]

Demonic_Duck - for HSKK, the teachers are not allowed to speak. There's just a tape that records you, and the teacher is there to just switch it on and off. So if you pause, nobody is going to interrupt.

I did HSKK intermediate last year, I was very nervous. I only scored a 78%. The first part where we had to repeat the sentence was easy. The part where we had to read then speak was easy to understand (no words that I didn't understand). I suppose my nervousness got the better of me. I didn't think about adding grammar, and I didn't plan out my 2mins properly. That said, we had no practice, the teachers didn't help and I didn't know what the exam format was going to be like. I only did the exam because it was compulsory, but there was no requirement to pass it, so I didn't really care.

I'm just not a good speaker.

[arreke]

I didn't think about adding grammar, and I didn't plan out my 2mins properly.

 

That's what I'm preparing for, I'm not a good speaker either, the only way to get used to speaking for 2 minutes fluently is speaking for 2 minutes on different subjects every day for 90 days, and after that it just becomes a habit. Well that is my theory, let's see if it works out eventually after 90 days ))