Correlation of old and new HSK with my progress

So how long does it actually take to learn Chinese? I’m not going to define what is fluent, I believe I’m still far from that, but how long does it take to pass HK6 for example? The highest Chinese Proficiency Test for foreigners at the moment.

How long did it take me to get to HSK6?

My first Chinese course was a month-long travel Chinese course when I was 16. I was already very interested to learn the language on my own then, even though I never had the courage to use my Chinese with my boyfriend at the time (he was ethnic Chinese).

I only started to get more serious with Chinese when I enrolled to the Chinese course in my university back in 2008. For two semesters I had four hours of Chinese every week. During Summer and Autumn 2009 I had only two hours Chinese lessons a week.

When I came to China this is what I could do: introduce my self, ask for directions, buy things, order in a restaurant. But I often found it hard to understand what the locals were saying. I could write maybe 200 characters by hand when I came.

I enrolled in Guangzhou university and spend two and a half semesters there. Spring 2010 I failed the old Elementary-Intermediate HSK exam, but in December I got to the level 4 of old HSK. And then to old HSK5 during spring 2011.

I changed to Sun Yat-Sen University in September 2011 and passed HSK5 in December.

In April 2013 I passed HSK6, 238 points out of 300.

It took me 1,5 years in Finland and 3 years in China to pass and get a nice score from HSK6. If I could get to this level in 4,5 years, you can do even better if you live in China the whole time or/and work harder than I do!

How fast can you learn Chinese?

Based on my experiences learning Chinese, I would guess that you can get to HSK6 in about 4 years in China.

Of course you can’t learn Chinese simply just by being in China.

• You have to enroll in a university, language courses or be a very diligent self studying type.
• You should almost always do your homework and study extra on your own.
• You should take the HSK every year in order to see your progress.
• You should make Chinese friends or have a Chinese boyfriend/girlfriend, someone to talk to everyday in Chinese.
• You should do your best in watching Chinese TV series and movies.
• You should also do your best in reading Chinese books.

Final words

There are many students who have studied Chinese as long as I am and are much better than me. There are also many who have studied Chinese longer than me, but I’m better than them. Everyone studies a language on their own way and speed.

This post is to give you some kind of idea how many years it might take you to learn Chinese. If you agree or disagree, please share your thoughts on the comments section!

Last Monday, 3rd of June, I attended the 6th Chinese Bridge  Competition Preliminaries for Foreign Students Studying in China. Chinese Bridge is a competition for Chinese language learners and there are separate competitions for those studying abroad and those here in China.

From the preliminaries around China, 100 students were chosen to continue the competition in Beijing. In Guangzhou total of 31 students took part in the race and in the end only 3 were chosen to go to Beijing.

First part of the competition was  self introduction of one minutes. After that two minutes talent show. I did taiji, but other students performed dancing, singing, Chinese story telling, xiangsheng, pingshu, playing Chinese instruments and so on.

Students from beginners to fluent attended the competition. Some of then had studied 15 years of Chinese, some only few months. Some didn’t understand the questions asked by three teachers, some had a perfect Chinese accent. Some had better Chinese skills than the Chinese themselves!

After the talent performance three teachers/judges asked different kind of questions from each student. Then they would each press a button for green light if they liked your performance. Three lights and you could continue to the second round that same afternoon.

I was lucky to be chosen to the second round too!

On round too there was 30 seconds to impress the judges. Because I don’t really have any skills I recited a Chinese poem. Unfortunately I hold the microphone too far and no one was really able to hear it!

In the end they chose three students to fly to Beijing. One 19-year-old Malaysian who had studied Chinese for 15 years and performed dancing (number 7). Guy number 4 who had a perfect Chinese accent (better than the Chinese!) who performed Chinese Crosstalk. And then a girl (behind the host) who played Chinese guzheng beautifully.

I didn’t make it to Beijing but it was an interesting experience nevertheless!

We woke up at Leishan Town before noon on Thursday. We have arrived there on a bus from Xijiang the day before and didn’t want to spend too much time in a town with nothing to do. I have found out online that there is a Leigong Mountain are nearby and even though it was raining a bit, we decided to go.

We went to buy bus tickets first and were planning to eat breakfast while waiting for the bus. But the bus was leaving in 15 minutes! We hurriedly bought some snacks for the journey and though there must be some place to eat near the Leigong Mountain.

Bus ride took less than one hour and had some amazing scenery. Unfortunately the bus and cigarette smoking locals made the trip a bit smelly. And don’t think about reading a book while on the bus, those mountain roads are a sure way to feel sick in the stomach!

Then we arrived to a crossroad in the middle of nowhere with only a small hut by the road. Bus driver told us to get off the bus as it was our stop. There we were with our backpacks on a rainy mountain with nothing to eat. We bought our tickets and started walking towards the top. After one hour or so we had to admit, that climbing a mountain with empty stomach isn’t a good idea.

We get back to where we started and asked the men in the hut for directions to any place with food. They told as a one kilometer short cut to a restaurant. We started climbing down those wet and super slippery rock stairs. We even found the restaurant, but as it’s not a tourist season over there, they didn’t make any food!

It started to feel a bit terrifying. The Leigong Mountain are is huge, it could be 10 kilometres to a nearest village! We had no choice then to keep on walking the road. Besides us, there were no tourist on the area, at least we saw no one.

While walking on a small countryside road we saw a minivan coming behind us and like a miracle it stopped! For a 30RMB he offered us to get on the vehicle and he would drive us to a restaurant. It took at least 20 minutes car drive the get there, we would have never made it by foot!

We were the only customers, but they still made us really delicious hot pot, spicy beef and vegetables. After hiking with an empty stomach for five hours it felt like the best meal I’ve ever had!

With our stomaches full we started to search for a place to sleep. Restaurant owner told us to walk 20 minutes to a certain direction to find a hostel. It didn’t look like that short of a trip on the map, but as two separate piece of advice told the same, we decided to hit the road again.

We walked at least half an hour and again got a drive from a local for 15 minutes until we reached the village that was supposed to have a hostel. Well, it actually did have one, but the owner was away playing mahjong and wouldn’t be back until 12pm or so. At this point it was 6pm already and getting dark.

There was no bus out of there, no car to take as and it certainly was way too far to walk. It was still raining and we were sitting on a bench under a roof pondering over what the hell we should do.

And then came our saving angle! Or saving warrior you could say too. He was driving on his scooter to get back to Leishan where he lived and agreed to take us too! So three on a scooter we started getting down the mountain with rain still pouring over us.

He was a local and thus belonged to the Miao minority living in the area. He didn’t only save us from the mountain, but also took us to his home! His wife, parents and two kids welcomed us warmly. Gave us warm water to wash our feet, towels to wipe our faces and let us sit near the fire to warm up. Then we have a real family dinner Miao style, with an exception to not having as much chili as they like themselves. Their dog kept us company too until it was getting over 9pm and we decided to head back to the hotel we had stayed the night before too.

We exchanged numbers with our saviour, a guy just a year older than us. Later on he send messages and made sure we had found the hotel and later that we were safely back to Guangzhou. We let him know that if he ever comes to Guangzhou he would surely have a room and a meal waiting for him!

Our little adventure was a success in the end. We saw amazing scenery, found a silent place in China and had a dinner in a local home. What else could we have asked for?

Next post in the series of Guizhou travels is about Langde Miao Village, stay tuned! Remember to check the earlier post about Xijiang too!

Xijiang Miao Village is the biggest Miao village in China, it is also the most touristy of them all. You can get to Xijiang by bus from Kaili, the ride will take about one hour (depends on the traffic) and with 18RMB you will travel in a comfortable double-decker bus.

The first thing you will see in Xijiang is the huge parking lot, you will soon realize that you are visiting a popular tourist destination. Tickets are 100RMB, but with a student card (at least with a Chinese student card) you can buy a half price ticket.

From the main gate you can take a bus to the village or walk about 20 minutes.

There are some nice views along the road so I recommend walking if it’s a good weather.

The first thing we did when reaching the village was to find accommodation for the night. We didn’t want to rush, but instead relax and enjoy our holiday, even though we had to share the “thousand household village” with uncountable number of Chinese tourists.

Because of the Labour’s Day prices were up and we ended paying over 300RMB for our room for the night. Rooms don’t have private bathrooms, but there are two toilets with shower on every floor. I’m sure many of you agree the room looks super nice on the photo, but I have to warn you the bed is hard as wood. There is only thick blanket on the wooden bed.

Most tourist will stay on the main road, so if you explore the more distant Miao houses or walk your way up to the hill instead of taking an electric car, you can enjoy the architecture and the view without competing with other tourists.

The main thing to do in Xijiang is to eat! Guizhou cuisine is super spicy, so be prepared. There are numerous different kind of snacks sold along the roads, you won’t go hungry here. You will also find many restaurants and bars inside Xijiang, all to cater the relaxed holiday travellers.

Talking about eating, you should try the local speciality Long Table Banquet where you will share many small dishes with your friends, or with others if your group isn’t big enough. Price is 28rmb and includes the dishes, rice and alcohol.

If you see local women coming your way singing then you should either prepare to drink or run away. They will tease you to drink and this alcohol gets to your head quite easily.

There is a bus to Leishan, but as there isn’t any timetables, it’s hard to know when the bus arrives. We ended up waiting for two hours, the bus was late because of the traffic I guess.

In the next post I will tell how we got lost in the Leigong Mountain and were saved by a local!

More information on Xijiang Village:

• Wikitravel
• China Trekking
• China Tour Guide

Photo: chinadiscover.net

Tomorrow morning me and my boyfriend A Nan will be stepping into a train that takes us 20 hours to the northwest. On Tuesday morning we will arrive to the city of Kaili where we will immediately (after breakfast that is) find a bus to Xijiang Village.

During the following four days we hope to visit places like Langde Village, Leishan County, Leigong Mountain, Matang Village and Shilong Village. Forecast has promised cloudy or rainy weather so that will determinate our final route in the end. It’s been forever since I took long distance train anywhere, last time we took the super fast train and were in Hunan in just two hours.

What’s interesting, my boyfriend who is local Cantonese, have never been on such a long train trip before! My own longest trip was about 26 hours from Chengdu to Guilin three years ago. I’ve longed for a good old train adventure ever since.

I’ll be posting photos and introducing all the places when we come back!

I’m a big believer that things happen for a reason and that things will always work out in the end. As you can guess from the photo, that is exactly what happened to me! You might still remember how I wrote being down last Autumn, having no motivation for studying and parting ways with my boyfriend.

During the last few years I have noticed that life always seem to through something new my way when I’m needing a change for the most. After going through the most terrible break up back in 2009 (Chinese guy with Finnish citizenship) I got a study exchange placement from Guangzhou University and moved to China in 2010. The whole world, well the whole China at least, was in my reach.

During my years in China I learned a lot, one of the things being taking charge of my own happiness. That let me to make the hard decision to break up with my boyfriend.

But as I believed, that was the beginning for a new life for me. I had grown up a lot during the first three years in China and what I wanted came clearer and clearer all the time. I’m not someone who settles for something, but someone who reaches her dreams and wants it all.

Last December, thanks to a good Japanese friend, I met A Nan. A local Guangzhounese, already graduated, working and doing another degree on his free-time. We noticed that we had a lot to talk about, connection that is hard to put into words. During that very same month he invited me to join his trip to Heng Mountain.

Since December I have been extremely happy and have gotten so much more to my life I could have ever asked for. I now live with his family which includes parents and little sister and her boyfriend, the two of them are marrying soon and moving to their own home next month. Besides my cat Lucy, I have adopted two more cats, Small White and Small Yellow. Both my boyfriend’s dad and little sister’s boyfriend have turtles. I have gotten so many new family members!

Living abroad far away from your family members isn’t always easy, but now I have a new family here in Guangzhou which makes my life some much richer than it have ever been. I have celebrated Chinese festivals, accompanied family members to furniture shopping and enjoyed family dinners every night.

I’m sure there are some curious readers out there with questions, but first I also have some questions for you too: Have you lived with a Chinese family yourself? Or how does it feel like to be part of your Chinese better half’s family?

It’s time to have the very first Guangzhou Meet-Up! Everyone living or traveling in Guangzhou at the moment can participate in this trip to the Xiaozhou Village. We will have a nice afternoon by relaxing and chatting in a coffee shop, we also have a great chance to walk around the ancient village and take photos.

Time: Sunday 24th March 2pm

Place: Xiaozhou Village main gate (click the map below to see it bigger)

How to get there: Take a bus 45, 252 or 468 to 小洲村 xiao zhou cun bus stop. Easiest way is to hop on to 252 or 468 at Kecun metro station (same side of the road as exit C). The ride will take about 40 minutes. (Click the map below)

If you live on the University Island (also known as University City, HEMC and 大学城) let me know and we can bike there together. The bridge between the University Island and Xiaozhou Village is being renovated so busses or taxis can’t cross it, but bikes can.

Confirmation via email: If you are coming, please send me an email with your name and phone number to sara(a)sarajaaksola.com (change (a) to @ before sending!) I will then send a message back to you so you can contact me if you get lost or are late.

See you on Sunday!

Recently I’ve received lots of interesting comments to my old post In China I’m Both Fat And Beautiful and wanted to answer them in this blog post. Many of the commenters saw me as self-centered person who doesn’t want to adapt to the Chinese way of living. But is this really the case?

When you live in a foreign country you encounter numerous new things. And when the new culture is as different as Chinese culture is from Finnish culture, you can’t just hop in and get used to it right from the start. You need to use all your senses to get into the new culture and way of living.

What you also do, is to spend amazing amount of time pondering over all the new things that happen to you. It’s a mess in your brain! Many of us feel like writing our thoughts down in order to make some sense to it all, and that’s why we write blogs.

There are so many things that I think are weird in China. It’s not good or bad, just different from what I’m used to. I need to talk it through in order to get used to it later on. And by writing this blog I hope to share me ideas so when someone else moves to China for the very first time they have an idea what kind of things they will encounter here so they can get ready before hand. So that they know they aren’t the only one feeling a bit lost in China.

So what kind of comments did I get then?

According to many comments:

• I don’t want to adapt to life in China
• I want China to revolve around me and get adapted to my way of living
• I’m self-centered
• I don’t respect China or Chinese
• I have forgotten the saying When in Rome do as the Romans do

There are even more comments on some Chinese discussion forum, but I haven’t checked them all yet.

I haven’t encountered these kinds of comments from other foreigners, only from Chinese. What could be the reason for this?

When I say Chinese people don’t line up, is it an observation or a criticism? When I admit it feels bad to be described as fat does it mean I’m not willing to adapt to Chinese lifestyle?

I do think it’s super super weird that Chinese people pay so much attention to skin colour and like telling each other if they are fatter or slimmer than when they met last time. Why is it so weird? Because I lived 20 years of my life living in a culture were these kinds of things were considered weird or even rude. Is it easy to change your mental thinking of twenty years? No, it absolutely isn’t easy.

For others who are planning to move to China or are living here already. Because of cultural differences you might get misunderstood by others and you also might misunderstand the local people for the same reason. It’s an adventure to move to a new country, a process of highs and lows.

I like to think that there isn’t good or bad when comparing two cultures, there is just different. New new habit, way of thinking or custom might feel weird, but that’s because it’s new to you. After a while you will be able to make better decisions about if you want to make that part of culture your own or not.

So what is my philosophy of living in China? Experience us much as you can. Learn the local language in order to communicate with Chinese people and get deeper into the culture. Respect differences and new ideas. Different doesn’t equal bad. If something feels weird for you try to find out why Chinese people are doing or saying something the certain way. You might find surprising reasons behind the customs.

There is a lot I would like to say about this topic, but I will end this blog post with a Finnish saying: If you don’t have anything good to say, better to say nothing at all.

New semester has started at Sun Yat-Sen University. During my previous three semesters here I have received the Excellent Student Award (being best at my class, grades 80+) two times and once I got a Didn’t-Skip-Classes Award (or something like that, for someone who skipped a very very few classes and grades were 70+).

So I have a lot to prove this semester! Lets take a look what kind of courses I’m having this semester.

Compulsory courses

综合

As always, there is the Comprehensive Chinese course which includes vocab, grammar, reading and writing. We changed to a new book series for this course and are now using Road To Success Advanced. It’s very different from the last book series we used the previous three semesters. New book is a welcomed change, but unfortunately our teacher is a tiny bit dry. We had such a great and entertaining teacher last semester, that I can’t help but to feel bit disappointed. My biggest challenge have always been how to be motivated when studying boring material, any tips?

计算机

Computer class! During this class we will learn how to use Word, Power Point and Excel in Chinese. I’m not sure how much I will learn during this class as I know how to use those quite well already. But it’s a good idea to get used to the Chinese interface. This course should help us write our thesis and make Power Point Presentations, or PPTs, if we work as a teacher some day. The teacher is young and energetic, so that makes this course better.

偏误分析

Error Analysis is a course that will help us to teach our students and correct their mistakes and errors. Hopefully it will also help me to correct some of my own errors as well. During this course we will need material to analyse, which will be a bit challenging for me. There aren’t so many Finns around here whose Chinese I could analyse, but I hope to find at least one or two. Or find more online. Teacher is young, but seems to know very well what she is doing. I think this will be a good course.

教育心理学

Educational Psychology will be one of the best courses this semester, at least that’s how I feel like just after first class with the teacher. We will learn how students learn the best and how a teacher uses this information in order to help the students. I’ve always been interested in learning methods, strategies and such, so I’m really looking forward what we will learn during this course. This teacher taught us last semester as well and she’s great.

毕业论文写作

Thesis writing! Of course we need a course to teach us how to write a thesis and this course is all about it. We will learn everything from how to choose a topic to the layout of the paper it self. One important task this semester is to choose a teacher to guide you with your thesis. The best teachers get chosen really quickly so I want to make my decision fast. I don’t want to end up with a young teacher without any experience. The teacher of this course is quite excellent, perhaps I should ask her.

太极拳

And then there is the Taiji, compulsory course  for us degree students. I feel so lucky that I don’t have to use my head and think what to do on Friday evening as I have Taiji classes then! What a relief! (Or not…) There isn’t anything wrong with Taiji, I actually like it, but not in this setting. Not when there are 50 students and all of us just want to pass the stupid thing.

Selective courses

朗读与正音

Read aloud and correct pronunciation is the name of this course, just what I need! We will prepare texts at home to read to the teacher and she will correct us, that’s the basic pattern for this course. I hope to improve my tones and some tricky pronunciation point that I still haven’t got right (z c zh ch). This teacher was really strict when she was my Comprehensive Chinese teacher a year ago and I expect her to keep it like that.

中国民俗及体验

This might be the most fun course of the semester! On this course to Chinese Popular Customs our teacher will introduce as to interesting places in Guangzhou related to different popular customs on the area. We will then visit them our selves taking notes and photographing the visit. After that we will present our finding to the class. What a great idea for a course!

中国哲学

Chinese philosophy is taught by one of my favourite teachers, our Comprehensive Chinese teacher from last semester. I probably don’t do the exam on this course but just because of the teacher I’m willing to take the classes. I’m sure it will be entertaining and interesting at the same time.

That’s it!

So these are my courses this semester. During this semester we will decide our thesis topics, find a guiding teacher and finally write a 开题报告, Chosen Topic Report, or something like that to finalize our topic choose. Next Summer and Autumn will be all about writing the thesis of about 6000 characters, there’s a lot to learn before that!

As all of you who follow my Facebook page know, I visited Hong Kong during the Chinese New Year holiday. The best destination I visited this time was absolutely the famous Dragon’s Back Hike. If you want to relax in a few hours hike in the middle of the nature, then this pretty easy hike is just for you!

Few tips:

• Take the MTR to Shau Kei Wan station, then change to bus number 9 To Tei Wan, the hike starts right next to the bus stop, you can’t miss it!
• Go during the morning or later during the day, avoid hot and harsh midday sun!
• Take water and snacks with you
• There are no trash bins along the road so remember not to litter!
• For more infromatio check Discover Hong Kong

Get off on this bus stop, you will then see a sign and a map to the Dragon’s Back Bone.

One kilometer to the beginning of the Dragon’s Back Hike.

The view on top is amazing! During the hike you feel like you have left the bustling Hong Kong, even though your are on the Hong Kong Island! A great get-a-way for a few hours or for a full day!

No need to worry about getting lost, there are signs in evey crossroad.

From here (sign below) you can continue the walk to the beach or head to the bus station and back to the city.