朗读 or reading aloud is a crucial component of the HSK high-level exam. Emphasis is on correct enunciation, tones, stress and intonation. The teacher assigned us all a short passage each and a few minutes to prepare before asking us to read to the class in turn. First up, are two Korean girls. They make a good fist of it and the teacher smiles.
"That's good. Level 9 easily, but if you're going for Level 10 you both might struggle a bit"
I'm privately encouraged. I could do that! Next, Korean girl #3. A definite hint of a Korean accent on certain consonants, but another good effort.
"Good too" beams the teacher, "but I'd encourage you to practise a couple of times a week." He addresses the first two. "You two should probably practise maybe once a week too".
Next, a Korean guy sitting next to Korean girl #3.
"Probably enough for a Level 9, but your tones are a bit off." He points at Korean girl #3. "If she needs to practice a couple of times a week, you should practise slightly more."
My turn. I finish reading my poem entitled 生活是多么广阔 ("How Vast Is Life") and there is a long pause. Behind the teacher's eyes, I can see the wheels of tact grinding up against the cogs of honesty.
"Your pronunciation is a bigger problem than your tones." The teacher says. Ouch. "Next time, I'll bring some exercises so you can work on it. I'd say your chance of passing Level 9 is 50-50". I can't help but look distressed. "The problems aren't serious, but they're consistent" the teacher says by way of reassurance. "If those mistakes come up in the exam, then it'll be tough to pass".
Last up is the Russian girl. She stumbles through the text messing up a good half of the tones, and gets totally unstuck on at least ten characters. Good-Doun sitting on my shoulder makes a sympathetic humming noise, feels sorry for her, commends her effort, and wishes her the best of luck in the remaining few weeks before the exam. Evil-Doun on the other side snickers and says
"Well that was painful. You should give up, Red". I can feel schadenfreude wrap its grubby little tentacles around my soul.
"Among our Russian classmates," the teacher opines "that was already very good, but you have to pay more attention to your tones and pronunciation." He addresses us both. "You and Doun should both try and practice every day. Prepare the other passages and we'll go through them next time."
Hubris smacks me in the face like a shovel. I'm honestly mortified that he lumped me in with her! Horrified, I realise that my ear for Chinese is way, way off. It's not that my reading aloud is rubbish, more that I can't even hear where it's bad. How am I meant to overcome that in four weeks? The poisonous icing on this whole rotten, bitter cake, is that I'd reckoned on Speaking being my strongest section of the exam.
From that point on, my confidence fell faster than
What really annoys me is that I've always been good at exams, but I'm lost when it comes to languages. My good grades in GCSE French and Spanish are more a testament to how easy those exams were, even back when I took them almost a decade ago, than any linguistic ability. I've been studying Chinese for a long time now, and at times it's really hard to detect any progress at all. I think there are some serious problems with my studying technique - which is probably more suited to the techniques and facts found in the hard sciences - and my fundamentals, which are sorely lacking. (What's a predicate anyway?)
Even writing off my countless Saturday mornings wasted in Chinese school as maybe a couple of term's worth of dedicated study, I still find myself way behind my peers here. This is my third year in China! I left class resolving to work my butt off and give a good account of myself at next month's exam. I don't do failure!
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