What is the HSK? China's Language Proficiency Exam | A Guide to Taking the HSK
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- Опубліковано 30 лип 2024
- Channel members get perks! / @austinguidry2
Ah, yes -- the HSK. The woe of many foreign international students in China. This is the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (汉语水平考试)，and it is the test foreigners need to take in China if they are going to be in Chinese-speaking work or study environments. It's China's answer to the TOEFL and the IELTS, though probably not as difficult.
How difficult is the HSK? How hard is it? Well, it's split up into six levels with vocabularies of 150, 300, 600, 1200, 2500, and 5000+ words. It's a lot yeah, but less than something like the TOEFL or IELTS.
The HSK is a language test, so it's split up into three parts: listening, speaking, and writing - in that order. 3 parts, 100 points a piece, 300 total. How many points to pass the HSK? 180. 60%. Not bad, right?
There's more in the video - check it out! :)
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What is the HSK? China's Language Proficiency Exam | A Guide to Taking the HSK #hsk #hskexam #takethehsk
I’ve been taking a Chinese course now, preparing myself for HSK 1. Wish me luck guys 👌
Just lv1.It's easy.
Don't do level 1. Go onto 2 first
How’d it go?
加油！ 祝你好运！ :)
Great Video! I actually wasn't sure what levels had what requirements. Shooting for at least an HSK 1 in a years time. Good luck on the test!
Thanks for giving us a nice synopsis of what the HSK is as there are quite a few of your followers that will be taking the HSK exams hopefully soon. As always great video and wish you the best on getting your HSK 5+ credentials Austin.
Thank you!
I'm a native speaker. I took the HSK 6 exam and got only 82% on the writing (shortening). :-(
hahahaha yeah, I can imagine I'd get a similar score on the CET or TEM-8
@@austinguidry2 不要炫耀你的作文水平，比我们母语高
@@korsbarsaturnus3209 he isnt
I am Chinese myself living in the UK, yet I still find your video very helpful. My daughter was brought up in the UK and although she has a good understanding of Chinese daily conversations, she hasn't learnt characters and grammar in any systematic way. Chinese is also harder to pronounce compared to English, so very often as a child, she chooses the simpler way to communicate with me or peers. I find HSK is a good way to let her get on with it. I mean the book itself is well organized and doesn't assume any understanding of Chinese before. So I am teaching her myself right now and she just passed HSK1. Letting her watch Chinese TV shows is also currently contributing to engaging her to Chinese culture and language but still has a long way to go. Great video Austin! Hope you enjoy the life in China.
Great video! Thanks for sharing such useful tips!!
I had to take HSK 6 a few years ago to be able to do my master's degree in Beijing. In fact, we were required to take HSK6 before we could even apply for our major, it was part of the required documents to submit. I remember struggling with the final part, 写作, because there were some characters I just could NOT remember how to write.
I’ve never thought about taking the HSK but you’re right...why not. Watching Chinese drama recently but will sign up for a Chinese course this fall. Thanks for the motivation! 🙏🏼👍🏽
for those who are interested in chinese language flashcards - www.yellowbridge.com/
if you are interested in a chinese language community:
www.chinese-forums.com/
Enjoyed the posh formal English impression!
Just dropping by to show my support. I am a public school ENL teacher in America and find that you are a badass! keep making content
ENL teacher? do you mean ESL?
max and. ENL = English as a new language.. same objective, different acronym here in NY anyway
Thanks for your support! I"ll try to keep it interesting :)
You have to learn full time Chinese to master any level, i am doing my full degree International Business 4 years taught in English, but also required to take hsk5 to graduate. Trust me, it is not easy speaking 4 or 5 levels, most of my classmates basically jsut learn to pass it in order to graduate. 95% of the time is spent in degree courses taught in English, class reports etc etc..
I think you got a quite lovely n unique Chinese accent. I like your accent x it's pretty posh for me as well. I got a very countryside accent n people would know where I'm from in terms of listening to me for a few seconds
Thank you for the video
As a Malaysian Chinese, my sister and I studied in a Chinese independent high school for 6 years. Surprisingly, when my sister applied for the ZheJiang university of China, she neednt take this test......but the ones who attended the governmental schools needed......
(My sister and I studied Science, our textbooks are all in english but the teacher in class speaks Chinese, and the people around us speaks Chinese too, so I havent talked much in Malay since I was a child hahhah )
Your video is inspiring!Thanks!
Sin Yie Chan 独中出来的申请大陆大学不需要汉语水平考试啊？第一次知道
@@yuhangshen6804 身为马来西亚的独中生，我们是under董教总的教育体系的（非国家主流体系）。我们高三需要考一个叫“统考”的类似A level, 高考这样的考试，不过这个考试我们国家政府不承认，所以我们不能拿统考文凭申请本地政府大学。反而，由于我们是中文源流学校，统考必考的华文科已经超越HSK的水准，所以基本中国当地的大学都是批哒（我们天天说话都是用中文，叫我说马来话我反而不会.....）
而我们这里的政府学校(这里叫国中)高中考的另外一个考试SPM(也就是国家教育体制主流的sijil pengajaran tinggi高等教育文凭，我马来文很烂如果错了不好意思哈哈哈)的华文科，由于水准不达标，还是要考HSK的......21世纪中国这么有威望，我忽然为自己选择了独中而感到庆幸...这里的华文教育之路非常艰难，但至少我们还会说写听中文......反观邻国印尼，新加坡的华裔由于政府的种种政策，已经连中文都不会说了。
唉，真是可叹啊，但恰恰好让我感恩我现在所有的。
况且因为中国现在非常欢迎外籍生的缘故，各种211 985非常热情，只要学习好就有机会可以进...哇，我觉得我们真是太幸福了，再次感恩上苍（合掌）
I watched your video about how you learnt Chinese and I was really impressed by your dedication! I am a language enthusiast too and wanna teach myself Chinese ! XD May I ask you to give me links to download a good etymology dictionary and that book you mentioned “ the ins and outs of Chinese culture “ , also links to books for all HSK levels Words and suggest me some great sites that offer a Chinese literature in Chinese so I can immerse myself this way ! I am intending to learn the writing and meaning of characters first then later learn their pronunciation ,do you think this is a good method or you have other suggestions for me as starter? Thanks in advance :)
Thank you Austin
Thanks for breaking it down and divulging the levels, I have been studying two hours a day for last 10 months with no plans of limiting my learning. A few questions: where along my journey should I start practicing handwriting the characters? (I can recognize many) is that necessary unless at a higher stage? Are levels 1, 2, and 3 seen as a joke? Also when you mention social media - weibo, qq, or wechat or all? Someone once bragged to me they had all three... Making it seem like 4, 5, and 6 didn't exist. Been a fan since 2013, thank you for consistency and continual delivery. Recently lived in China without using Chinese as at all and had a less than optimal time being worked to death in Guangzhou lol, now that I have a clearer vision of where I want to go with my new venture - language study plays a big part plus I owe it to ally close Chinese friends. I know great rewards will open in quality of life in Asia at the higher levels. Thanks again Austin!
I would personally recommend practicing writing as soon as possible. It's not really a useful skill in and of itself, BUT what it does is it lets you become intimately familiar with the composition of the characters. Knowing the radicals and composition of characters can give you clues on the pronunciation and/or meaning of characters you don't know! :)
I use all social media here. I'm on everything! Haha
Good luck! :)
Austin In China thanks Austin, I'll start today :)
Austin In China are there any books or online resources you recommend to start practicing the writing? Or how many characters a day I should practice writing to build a daily rhythm? Or just simply attack it asap? In six months I hope to write back with results! I am a super beginner using wechat moments to write posts, still far from where I want to be & the encouraging corrections from Chinese friends publicly on the feed are always welcomed hahaha
A bunch of people I know use an app called Skritter to practice writing, and an idea I've had is to force myself to handwrite all the characters while typing out a text or wechat message in Chinese. Just start with 5-10 a day; it doesn't seem like a lot, but that's plenty if you think about how many that is going to add up to in a month or a year. It seems fun to do 15 or 20 a day, but that pace gets too be too much after about a week. It's a LOT to do every day
Austin In China Following your advice and stat reply, I took action and downloaded it! It's perfect for having your book open and side by side active instruction. I'll be making use of it today. I think your idea of 5-10 is spot on and works with the Slight Edge book mentality. Taking the bull by the horns! Glad to be on the notification bell!
Recently, I am tutoring my foreigner relatives for the Chinese exam, because of HSK, I think I can't speak Chinese anymore.
Good Luck Austin
SoO relaxing😍
This is definitely easier test compare to Toefl even the chinese students took english classes for more than 10 years
Totally agree - I've taught TOEFL, and the language level of the TOEFL is crazy high. It's a tough test.
I took TOEFL when I was 15. I don't quite remember how well I did. I do remember it being quite difficult ^^ but back then my English wasn't completely fluent yet.
My HSK Level right now is 3 I guess ^^ I tried the tests for fun a while ago and 3 was nice and passable. 2/1 was super easy and 4 was WAYYYY to hard :D
@@alex73217 We can take the HSK test online?
Hey Austin, how much does the HSK cost to take? Great video by the way.
Thanks! It's 550 yuan to take the test
Thanks for this usefull video
Happy to help!
Hey Austin, do you happen to know how the marking scheme works? I've just taken an HSK 3 mock exam and I scored a total of 43/80 :S However, I would like to be able to work out my actual score based on their marking system. If you are able to shed some light I would be very grateful! :D
Now there is
going to be Nine
levels starting
next year in 2021.
Hi buddy awesome info I never knew what the HSK actually was till I watched your video. What level are you?
Just saw you are busy taking the level 5 lol hahaha my bad
😂😂😂😂
Do you not feel as though your writing is up to scratch? Or have you just not had anyone mark it? I passed HSK 5 comfortably a couple of months ago (at Sichuan University). My worst mark was in the reading. I hadn't any papers beforehand so I struggled with the time management for the reading section. That's thing I should have practised. Good luck for when you take the exam!
My writing is meh. I never really studied Chinese writing, so I never learned how to grammatically put together those kinds of super flowery, overly decorative sentences that the Chinese use in their writing. I've always focused on other aspects of Chinese...writing's the least useful (at least, in my life). My speaking, reading, and listening are all fine - I've taken six practice tests now, and I've passed each one without even counting the 60 points for the essays haha so I'm happy with that! I'm going to be taking a private Chinese class in the next couple of weeks, and I'm thinking about practicing speaking and writing in that class, since speaking is most important, and my writing is the weakest.
(sorry for the massive reply)
Where is that place? The last scene picture
Is there a Korean version of this ??
How many hsk we have to give for studying mbbs in China im confused???
I felt a little bit surprised there is no speaking part in HSK. Besides, I am a Chinese native speaker, but sometimes I cannot remember how to write a commonly-used character neither, because nowadays we don't write on paper very often.
There is a speaking-specific HSK test. It's not a part of the "normal" HSK test. If you are applying for a job that requires you to, let's say, host a program in Chinese, or something like that, they may want to see a spoken HSK certificate
They have HSKK for speaking part specifically
austin how are you my question is this that hsk 4 is done on every month in china but i want to know that in a month hsk 4 comprises of how many types like A B C and D type paper or the paper is same for every student or in a different type.please guide me about this
No idea, sorry. I'll bet they have different papers - that's basic test prep on the part of any teacher or organization
Can you tell something about the difference between simplified and traditional Chinese characters?
I haven't made a video about that, and although I hate this guy.....I have to admit, this is a good, and at times, funny, video: ua-cam.com/video/Uc-H9XUarv8/v-deo.html
Here's a video that shows 50 characters and how they're different: ua-cam.com/video/T7Kd2B2XV2U/v-deo.html
You know, if I'm honest, I've never really thought about doing a video about that, because I never use (or even ever see, for the most part) traditional characters in my daily life here. It'd be an interesting topic to cover, and yeah, I'll put it on this list! I'll have to do my research first, so it might be a while :)
If someone has a O level Chinese second language distinction grade or a 'AO' level Chinese distinction grade, can these be used to skip some of the HSK levels?
I'm not sure, sorry
@@austinguidry2 No problem mate. In O level there is Chinese as a second language and higher Chinese. Some Chinese actually failed higher Chinese. These students will be taking English as the first language.
Hi Austin, where did you buy the mock exams for HSK5? Thanks.
Either Taobao or Dangdang （当当网）. You can also find them on Amazon, I think
Austin In China thank you.
Ni Hao. I am from Bangladesh. i want to learn Chinese (Mandarin) in China in next spring (March) semester with my own finance . In that case, I prefer north side of china except Beijing . Because Beijing is very expensive. Pls provide me some suggestion in some point which are given below:-
(1) which one is better HSK course or general course like elementary,Intermediate and then advance ?
(2) Is it wise to select north side of China as a location to learn Mandarin ?
(3) Language school or university which one is better to learn mandarin ?
(4) provide me some University name that is comparatively cheap to learn mandarin ?
(5 ) Now i am 43 years Old. is age is considered as a barrier to learn Chinese ?
If you want to learn useful language, take general courses. If you want to do HSK specifically, do the HSK course. I'd personally go for the general courses. Northern China is generally better for learning Mandarin, yeah. I'd also choose a university. 43's still okay to learn. It's harder, sure - but it's still fine. As far as specific universities...you'll have to do your own research on that one.
İs hsk3 level enough for flight attendants who is willing to work in routes commuting countries where Chinese is spoken
I don't know - I'd ask the airline if I were you
What if I can only write in traditional characters and not simplified- is that acceptable?
Oh......I legit don't know! My instinct is that that won't be accepted.....but again....I don't know.
hey you didnt mention how to register for an exam
Register here - www.chinesetest.cn/index.do
Where can i buy that hsk book??
Taobao, dangdang if you're in china...outside of china, try amazon
Hi! I was wondering if it's possible to pass the HSK 1 with a month of learning.
Probably, if you study at least 2 to 3 hours a day. Level 1 is not difficult.
Absolutely. If you work hard. In fact, blogger Scott Young was able to pass the HSK4, after 3 months of studying Chinese.
Hi Austin brother!😀
I am HSK2, and words rang is 300. I have almost 4 month to prepare for HSK4. Please guide me is this target is possible to achieve. And how should I study for it please.
There's a great community you can join for exactly this reason! Small, achievable goals, accountability, and people at all levels. Join here - registration's open: elementarychinese.com/austin
@@austinguidry2 thank dear
Here in my school even tho we are not in China we have HSK here in my school in the Philippines.
Oh, really? Interesting!
赞！👍
What is the HSK? my worst nightmare, especially the writing section...
hahahaha I would agree if I was taking the pen and paper test....computer test should be pretty easy! I did pen and paper for level 4 way back in the day and did SO BAD on the writing part - I didn't even finish it in time hahaha this time, computer test! ;)
if someone wants to study medical in China as a foreigner , does he have to take this exam ( HSK)
Depends on the university; you'll have to do some research on that one on your own.
@@austinguidry2 actually I want to study in English , because I will take into account as a foreigner student .
Why didn't you go for HSK 6?
Didn't feel like it. Might do it this year!
But what's it short for?
HSK=Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (Chinese Standard Examination)
Thanks. :-)
其实hsk6 蛮多中国人也整不明白
Is it an online test or offline??
You have to go to their testing center and take it
@@austinguidry2 Huh?? I thought you mentioned something about a computer test in some of your comments...? No??
😇😇😇😇😇😇😇
haha..well said :P
I felt It was a little offensive to finish by GET OUT ! Don’t be over exited fhfhfjfj
Does the average Chinese really know 5,000 characters? Somehow i doubt it. The highest level of the Japanese language proficiency test (JLPT) is 2,000 characters, and most Japanese people can barely recognize 1,000 characters, they can probably write less than that, and 1,000 is the bare minimum JLPT5. Although 2K characters equal to roughly 10K vocabulary, because of the Hiragana, a lot of words use the same characters. I would say the vocabulary of the average Japanese is roughly 5,000 words, and about 600/700 characters.
Yes it does, the average characters a Chinese would recognize by graduating high school is 6600.
But you do realize we Chinese don't use kana, don't you? Our writing is solely based on Chinese characters. If some one only know about 2000 characters they can barely read newspaper in Chinese. Although there is a lot of kanji in Japanese, Japanese and Chinese are two fundamentally vastly different language. You can't come up any reliable conclusion about Chinese based on your understanding of Japanese.
How much vocabulary is 5K characters equal to? A brief Google search tells me that you need 2K characters to read a newspaper, which means the average Chinese don't know 5K characters.
ザ・リバタリアン with 2k Chinese characters you can get a general idea of the articles in the newspaper, but you probably can't read people's names in the story or a lot of scientific/political terms or any other somewhat sophisticated words. You probably could understand news about some crime but not political news. Personally, I can somewhat guess why you believe average knowing 5k characters is unlikely. Japanese associates knowing more kanji with higher social status. Since knowing kanji is more like a luxury than a necessity. You guys can use harigana instead. But to us, using Chinese characters is the only option. Our whole writing system is built on it. Knowing a lot of Chinese characters is not something worth bragging off for a Native Chinese. It's just basic stuff. Some one come up to me and tell me that"You know what? I know a lot of difficult barely used Chinese characters!" And I'd be like"yeah, so what, big deal." If you want to write in Chinese, you have to know your Chinese characters.
ザ・リバタリアン the frequently used characters table released by mainland includes 3500 characters (2500 mostly frequently used, 1000 less frequently used). The frequently used characters table released by Hongkong includes 4758 characters. The same table released by Taiwan includes 4808 characters. So I'd say 5000 is about right.
NOT Chinese per say, but Mandarin, the language of the state.
putonghua (called mandarin in english) means ordinary tongue. It's the common language that everyone can understand to some degree, even if not everyone can speak or write it due to a lack of education or because they are from an area where the local dialect or tribal language is dominant.