For 2010, I made a personal goal of improving my standardized test scores for the languages in which I have some experience and sometimes include on my CV: Mandarin, Japanese and French. In order to take stock of where I was at, I sat the HSK (汉语水平考试), JLPT (日本語能力試験) and DELF (Diplôme d’études en langue Française) in late 2009 as a sort of “before picture”.
Here in my hometown of Edmonton, AB, the HSK (Chinese) is administered by the Confucius Institute; the JLPT (Japanese) by the Prince Takamado Japan Centre at the University of Alberta; and the DELF (French) by the Edmonton Public School Board International Credentials for Languages Services.
As much as I enjoy language learning, standardized testing has been something I’ve avoided whenever possible. Part of this is because language tests typically focus on, and subsequently expose, my weak points (reading and writing) and don’t give me an opportunity to demonstrate my speaking/listening skills; more to the point, I’ve never really been put in a position where I *had* to pass a language test– why put myself through the trouble?
Recently, however, I started thinking about how many people have to obtain satisfactory TOEFL, IELTS or similar English testing scores in order to get jobs, immigrate, or even simply go to school in Canada. The more I thought about it, the more hypocritical I started to feel— I wondered if I would be able to make the grade if the shoe was on the other foot?
At the end of the day, however, my main intention is to maintain and continue to polish my language skills. As much as people talk about language “acquisition”, the simple truth is that without practice, one’s language skills can atrophy pretty quickly. Once I have all my scores, the next step will be figuring out what to do next year.
[update August 2011]
Since starting this project, I’ve passed the DELF B2 French exam, the new ‘N1′ level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, level 5 of the HSK Mandarin test, as well as the advanced HSK spoken Mandarin test. I wasn’t able to pass level 6 of the HSK this year, so I’m currently putting more effort into reading and writing Chinese so that I can challenge HSK 6 in the fall or next spring.
[update March 2012]
I just registered to challenge HSK 6 again on May 20th at the Edmonton Confucius Institute. Feeling excited!
