The Straits Times featured an article on language exchange today, for which I was interviewed. Click on the image to read the article!
Check out this previous post if you’re interested to set up a language exchange yourself.
How to take the HSK test in Singapore
If you’re learning Mandarin, the Certification to go for is the HSK test. It’s tricky to find up-to-date information on where and how to take the HSK test in Singapore. Here are the relevant facts.
What is the HSK exam exactly?
HSK stands for Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (“Chinese Proficiency Test”) and is administered by Hanban, an agency of the China’s Ministry of Education.
You can take the test in Singapore. The test sheets are sent back to China for grading.
When you pass, you will receive an HSK certificate with a level of 1 (lowest) to 6 (highest). To reach level 6, you need to know 5000 character combinations.
Why get HSK certified?
You can take the HSK test for 2 reasons: (1) to give yourself a goal for improving your Chinese or (2) for University admission and jobs in China.
Most Universities and employers will ask for HSK 6, so it only makes sense to sit for HSK for this reason if your Chinese is already very good.
People sometimes ask me whether schools provide certificates after attending a course. Many schools do, but the truth is that only the HSK certificate is recognised internationally.
How to sign up?
In Singapore, HSK examinations are organised by Crestar / KLC. The examination dates this year are: March 18, April 14, July 22, August 9, October 21 and December 2.
You need to sign up at least 1.5 month before the test. Here is the HSK enrollment form. Right-click + save to download. Many language schools can also do the registration on your behalf.
Need preparation?
The best path to certification is to first take a general Chinese course (if you’re a complete beginner), and when you have progressed enough, sign up for the HSK exam.
In the months ahead of your exam, you can get prepared with an HSK preparation course:
- Crestar itself a Pre-HSK workshop at its centres in Serangoon, Jurong East and Yio Chu Kang
- Han Hai Language studio offers customised individual HSK preparation at a location of your choice
- Spring College International has HSK preparation courses at three different levels in Bishan and Jurong East.
“How can I get fluent faster?”
I’ve been in Singapore since 2006. Before moving here, I had taken classes in Dutch, English, German, French, Ancient Greek, Latin and Spanish, and the first thing I did in Singapore was signing up for a full-time Mandarin course. No joke!
So you can say I have gone through the language learning process a good number of times. Not that I always went ‘all the way’, but I do know what it takes to learn a new language now!
How long does it take to get fluent in a language?
Here is the short answer: as a ballpark number, you can achieve 80% fluency in a matter of months if you dedicate yourself to it full-time (a few hours every day). If you only have a few hours every week, it will take you 1-2 years to hit the 80% mark.
Ok, that answer’s maybe a bit too short. It depends on a number of things, such as what languages you already speak and the way you learn.
Do you want to speed up your language learning? Sign up for the yago newsletter and I’ll send you more detail! (Don’t worry, you can unsubscribe any moment)
Filed under Learning
For certification, don’t count on your language school
Before joining a language school, many language learners ask whether the school provides a certificate. While most schools do provide certificates of attendance and level, it is better to separate the teaching and certification. Because bear for rare exceptions, school certificates aren’t recognized outside of the school premises. So their use is limited to being able to graduate to the next level of the course.
When a school certifies its students, there is a conflict of interest. It would look good on the school if many students score well in the examination. So the school would look better if it would make its ‘testing standards’ more lax. Besides, there are so many language schools in the world – how would any one certificate be able to get recognized by employers and universities.
So that’s why there are independent language tests, such as KLPT (Korean), JLPT (Japanese) IELTS / TOEFL (English), HSK / BCT (Mandarin), DELF/DALF (French), DELE (Spanish). These tests are recognized worldwide and translate readily into a the CEFR, meaning that the person you submit the certificate to can assess what you can and cannot do in the language.
So just like when you learn to drive, use your language school for instruction (like your driving instructor), and book a spot for recognized international certification (“practical driving examiner”) when you have reached a significant level and would like a certificate to prove it.
Many language schools can help you book your examination, and some even offer courses that prepares you for the type of questions asked. It’s good to make use of those if you can. But don’t rely on a school-issued certificate to open doors for you!
Filed under Language, language school, Learning
Giving you an inside peek into language schools
Over the past years, I’ve visited many language schools and interacted with their principals, staff and teachers, and it strikes me that each language school has a different feel to it, sort of like a culture on its own.
Some schools feel like a family, with most of their staff members working for the school over many years and close connections between the students and school staff. Other, mostly larger schools, have a different feel based on the student crowd they attract. What age are the students, and what are they there for? Are they learning for fun or is there a direct need for them to get fluent in the language?
These ‘unseen parts’ of the school are very important when choosing your language school. But how can you find out? If you have a friend taking a course at a school, you can ask your friend what it’s like. But that isn’t always the case, and in any case, it’s just one person’s point of view.
This is why we are gathering as many course reviews on yago.sg as possible. One review can only tell so much, but if you find review after review saying that the staff of a certain school are really caring, chances are that you will experience the same when you join the school.
So before you join a language course, check out what other people have to say about the course you are planning to join. Here are some of our most reviewed language schools.
Have you attended language lessons yourself? Help us make Yago a better resource by adding your review. If you do so before 9 September 2011, you will also enter our draw and stand to win an iPad 2!
For a step-by-step guide on adding the review, check out this page!
Filed under language school
Swiss German is like Singlish
If you are thinking of looking for a class to learn Swiss German in Singapore, don’t.
You may have done some research and have found out that the Swiss speak several languages, depending on where you go, but that their German is very different from the German language spoken in Germany. That is entirely correct. German is my third language and I feel quite at ease in Germany, but if the Swiss are talking among themselves, I have no clue. The sounds and tones even sound much like my native Dutch, but there isn’t a thing I can distinguish.
But the Swiss do not speak Swiss German in school, in the office or in any other formal situation. In such situations, German-speaking Swiss would speak standard German with a trademark Swiss accent. Swiss German is not a written language. In fact, I once heard that when Swiss kids first go to primary school, they learn their first foreign language at very young age, which is Standard German.
Swiss German is just like Singlish. It’s highly treasured among German-speaking Swiss and the language of choice at home and with close friends. As a foreigner, trying to speak Swiss German is like navigating a minefield, you don’t want to come across as if you’re making fun of your host, or worse, your boss.
Learning Swiss German (or Singlish, for that matter) in class is thus not advisable, and it’s probably for that reason that you’re not going to be able to find a class in Swiss German in Singapore, or elsewhere. But if you are in Switzerland long enough, and understand Standard German, you’ll definitely pick up an understanding of it and may even get comfortable enough to dare speaking a few phrases.
Want to learn standard German? Check out soon starting German classes on our main website!
Overhearing and being overheard
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque or "Blue mosque" in Istanbul, Turkey
One of the fun thing of being on a holiday is that you can talk openly with your friends / family even in public places, because others wouldn’t understand you. But that is often a false sense of security. Far more often than you would think, some bystander will be following your every word. Here’s some situations:
Turkey
On a school trip to Turkey in my secondary school time, some of my classmates were walking behind a Turkish soldier in Istanbul. They were jokingly saying things like “do you dare to kick him?” “I’ll give you 10 guilders if you kick him”. The soldier turned around: he was a dual Dutch-Turkish citizen normally living in the Netherlands, and was serving his National Service as a requirement to keep his Turkish passport. Fortunately, he had a sense of humor similar to that of my classmates.
Finland
A Dutch friend of mine spent a semester on exchange in Helsinki, Finland. One day, sitting in the train in a spot where two rows of seats face each other, he was joined by two Belgian girls on the opposite site. They were feeling very free and commenting in Flemish on how good-looking Finnish men are etc. Dutch and Flemish are no more different than, say American and British English. Upon leaving the train, my friend couldn’t resist pulling off his mask, saying in Dutch “Nice to have met you, almost-fellow-country-citizens” to great embarrassment of the girls
Singapore
I’m often in a receiving position of this in Singapore, as I don’t quite look like a person who would understand Mandarin. But compared to Europeans, it seems Singaporeans are quite well behaved. I haven’t ever caught a bad word. Wouldn’t know whether I would take off my cover if it happened.
The one situation I can remember is when I was flying off from Changi Airport and wanted to buy some last minute gifts. One of the aunties behind the counter told her colleague as I opened up my wallet: “他住在新加坡。我看到他的UOB card” (“He lives in Singapore. I see his UOB card”, UOB being a local bank). I really wished I had a witty reply ready, but I wasn’t that fast on my feet when it happened.
Do you recognise this?
If you speak English only, you may never have felt comfortable using your mother tongue as a secret language. If you speak Mandarin, you should not, ever, feel comfortable again either. And as you see, even if you speak a rather small language as Dutch, there is no way to be sure that you’re safe.
My guess is that we’re being overheard far more often than we think. Can you remember you overheard tourists who thought they were safe? Did you reveal you understood them?
