The test, how it went

Well, like many things in life, the big language test was a bit anticlimactic. I think everyone more or less passed it. The level of competence they were seeking did not involve all that much depth. And probably we could have passed it about two or three weeks ago. Nonetheles, it was a real test and you certainly had to know Chinese to pass it. But you did not have to know that much Chinese that well. Thank God.

Before the test, one of my teachers had given me the advice that if you don't understand something your testor says to ask "shenme yici" or "what is that," so that the tester would try to give you more information in Chinese because she would not tell you in English something she asked. On the other hand, if you wanted to reply with some word or phrase you did not know, it was legitimate to ask "hanyu zenme shuo?" or "how do you say that in chinese." I had recourse to both of these strategies during the interview.


So as I said, we had a rougly half hour conversation with an outside tester. Our conversation was recorded so that if there was any question there was a record. You begin with an informal conversation, partly in English and partly in Chinese. When the tape started rolling you were asked some simple questions to make you fell at ease, such as "what is your name.' Even here though I stubmled because the way you are asked for your name is with the term "mingzi" and I had forgot that you are also sometimes asked for your surname or "xing," which is your last name. As an interestiing side note, this is how Chinese introduce themselves, by providing their last name first because of course that is much more important than their individual identity. Luckily my "what is it" came in handy here and with a couple of prompts from her in Chinese I was able to figure out what was being asked. After a few more questions we were asked to talk in a little detail about some things, and I tried to talk about my campus and where I would be teaching. That went alright, not great.. Then we had to do a role play, where the teacher would provide a scenario which we would have to enact. Luckily I wound up with a relatively easy one, having to buy stuff at the market. Some of the other ones people were given like trying to rent an apartment or talking to an elderly person about a wedding would not have been so easy. Even here though nervousness made me stumble a bit. Finally we had to ask our questioner a couple of questions, and this was pretty easy.

Anyway, we don't get the results till next week but I am not really worried. But neither am I particualarly satisfied with my level of language competence, but that is my own fault. It is good to know, the Peace Corps will pay for a tutor while we are in country, and this is something I will certainly take advantage of.