Can you ace HSK 5 in a year?

[Guest realmayo]

1 hour ago, werewitt said:

All you and, by his own admission, @stapler have is an uninformed opinion

 

I studied at a Chinese university; I talked to the teachers there; I talked to some students from one country telling me that their free attendance was linked to an agreement about oil or gas that had just been signed between their country and China. But perhaps you know better?

[roddy]

I suspect, and have no evidence to back this up, that in STEM subjects there's actually much more of a one-to-one equivalence in vocabulary. The basic objects and forces and rules are the same. The words might be different, but not the concepts. Compare that with humanities where you're coming out of an entirely different tradition. 

 

Also - there's little doubt that China's scholarships are part of a soft power push, but it's a fairly commendable one as soft power pushes go - I'd rather that than another English language news channel. And while it's easy to look down at Chinese education, there are plenty of countries where it looks a very attractive (and potentially free!) option. 

[somethingfunny]

You know, you're right, let's up the difficulty...

 

Q. Zkjbdf, sdjbgjadsf sfknas:

 

 

lskdfnalkdf?

 

The answer is still 2.5.

[lips]

Actually, in science and mathematics, the Chinese vocabulary is much easier than English, because most terms reflect their meanings directly.  (For example, you have to know that "quad" means four and "lateral' means side to know what "quadrilateral" means in English, whereas 四边形 is obvious).  The problem is that the language patterns, structure, conventions, etc. in Chinese scientific writing is *very* different from non-scientific writing.  Learning the materials is no problem as one can always use a textbook in your native language to do that.  However, in an examination written in Chinese, a person at HSK 6 would be hard pressed to understand the question.

Now there are many non-Chinese (sorry for the non-PC term) science and engineering graduates from Chinese universities so this obviously is not an insurmountable problem.  It's just that HSK is not an adequate preparation or marker for handling Chinese scientific literature.

[lips]

11 minutes ago, somethingfunny said:

let's up the difficult

This is university level engineering mathematics?

Don't forget word problems.  There'd be lots of those.

[werewitt]

@realmayo My condolences on your negative experiences . Yet even if you talked to a couple of people, it's a long way from opining on an education system of a billion+ strong country.

 

Are you American? If you are - here's my mildly informed opinion: I think America is a poor third world country (just look at eg life expectancy or income distribution) with great marketing to fool everyone, even citizens. I lived there for a year (in SF) recently and ran out after my year finished. Yet I'm not going around offering unsolicited opinions on random forums ;)

[Angelina]

Good point, @realmayo, there are many students from Sudan, where both sides involved in the armed conflict are using weapons made by a Chinese company, owned by the Government. Terrible. Also, many students from Pakistan. Dharamsala. Enough said. 

[werewitt]

19 minutes ago, somethingfunny said:

The answer is still 2.5.

2.4695 

[somethingfunny]

I'm not saying it's ideal.  But as Roddy mentioned, it's going to be a hell of a lot easier than something in the humanities or social sciences.

 

Science exams, especially at university level, are pretty easy to prepare for if you know what you're doing.  The way the topics are broken up means the focus of the material is pretty narrow and the kinds of questions that come up are frequently repeated.  Let's say you take a course on Lasers - you know off the bat that the questions are going to be all about wavelengths and population inversions - therefore you can be very specific with your preparation.  The examples I gave were extreme - with zero assumed knowledge of the second language - add in some specific vocabulary and it starts becoming a lot easier, even with wordy questions.  And "wordy" questions aren't all that bad either, all physical sciences and engineering is essentially a matter of using given knowns to find an unknown - the worst that can happen is the lecturer throws in a few red herrings.

 

Please remember my caveat: you have to be good at the subject, and clued in to whats happening, by which I mean good at predicting what's going to happen in the exam.  If the lecturer gives 5 dull lectures and then halfway through the last lecture throws up a slide and talks at length about how important this particular bit of information is, then anybody who doesn't learn that specific material deserves to fail the exam.

[Guest realmayo]

11 minutes ago, werewitt said:

My condolences on your negative experiences

 

I had excellent experiences.

 

The OP asked about the one-year Chinese preparatory courses. I know teachers who teach that and what they think about it. I know students who've been through it and what they think about it. I've discussed plenty of times the unrealistic expectations placed on those students by the system and the pressure that comes from above to make it work. I've worked in one Chinese university, I've studied in another. But okay, you think it's not appropriate to share what I've learned with the OP. Instead you think what he's really interested in are your experiences in San Francisco and your opinion on the US as a third world country. Bravo!

[Angelina]

Quote

 I know teachers who teach that and what they think about it. I know students who've been through it and what they think about it. 

 
 

 

 

 

Invite them to come here and speak for themselves. 

I do not like it when someone is not only speaking in the name of a group I am a member of, this person is not even a member of it himself.

I appreciate your knowledge. You must know enough about studying in China (by talking to students and teachers), and you have made the informed decision not to study in China based on this knowledge. However, you never did it yourself, and your understanding will always be limited to: "I know enough about it from the experience of other people to decide not to do it myself."

 

[Guest realmayo]

2 minutes ago, Angelina said:

you have made the informed decision not to study in China 

 

28 minutes ago, realmayo said:

I've worked in one Chinese university, I've studied in another.

 

[Angelina]

but as a language student, not a full-time degree student, what OP is considering 

[Guest realmayo]

I was a full-time degree student but yes, for Chinese language.

 

What was your experience Angelina? Did you arrive in China with no knowledge of Chinese and spend a year on a preparatory course before starting a degree? What was it like?

[Angelina]

I arrived in China with some knowledge of Chinese. If anyone with zero experience with Chinese is thinking about doing this, they should first see if they actually like the language.

 

I did have one year of Chinese language instruction (BLCU). This included a course in Chinese for science. I will share the textbook we used there. 

 

I applied for my degree program after finishing the language course. I am still enrolled. 

 

I have to say that one major issue was writing. If anyone is thinking about studying in China, they should think about whether or not the program offers enough support when it comes to academic writing. It is a good environment, however, there is not enough experience with international students at this point. Hopefully, mine and the experience of other students can help design better plans for attracting, selecting, and supporting international students in the future.

 

 

 

 

[Guest realmayo]

What was your level when you arrived? After your year, how did your Chinese compare to students who arrive knowing nothing and finish the standard one-year preparatory course?

[Angelina]

One big difference was the lack of pressure. I was able to get things done without much difficulty. Those that arrived with no knowledge of Chinese were overwhelmed by the fact that they can't do basic things.

 

Students part of that preparatory course had training for the HSK. I had some courses with them, for example, the Chinese for science course mentioned above.

 

I think that the preparatory course is designed well enough to help them pass their language proficiency exams. Of course, this does not mean that all students will pass, they should study, but the course is enough when to comes to passing the HSK. I do not think that, at least for now, the course is sufficient for preparing them to study in China. Academic writing is definitely bottleneck number one. 

 

 

 

 

[Guest realmayo]

Okay nice, so sadly by your own criteria your information is of limited use to the OP because your situation was in at least some respects different to that of the OP. But I still think it's useful and he should take it on board.

 

Personally I think it's stupid to suggest limiting the number of things one's allowed to have an opinion on or draw conclusions on, to only things one has directly personally experienced. By that token, you would be ineligible to comment on employment prospects for graduates from your programme until you actually get a job. But anyway.

[Angelina]

Your views are as welcome as always, just saying that your knowledge has limitations. 

Knowledge is always limited by our subjective experience anyway. 

[somethingfunny]

So... you're saying I can't really know... anything...?