One of the more remarkable experiences over the past several years is learning Mandarin. I have documented the various stages of this journey here and here, and in this post, I will recount my latest accomplishment, namely, completing HSK 5 and beginning HSK 6, which places me squarely in the beginning of the advanced level.
People often use the term “fluent” to describe their language ability; in my view, this is vague and imprecise, as it means different things to different people. For some, it refers to the capacity to communicate effectively in simple but necessary interactions such as eating at a restaurant, taking a cab, or ordering a service, which is often sufficient for foreigners living in the country where the language is spoken. For others, including me, fluency rather means the capacity to effectively communicate about most conversational topics. But here, too, the definition lacks precision. For example, even in my native languages, English and Italian, I sometimes struggle to speak about topics I am unfamiliar with, but that my interlocutor knows well. Here, the lack of fluency comes from the lack of knowledge about the subject rather than language per say.
The spectrum of beginner, intermediate, and advanced, I think, is more helpful in capturing the various levels of a skill, including language, and the HSK system for learning Mandarin is structured around these differences. It also recognizes that there are importance variations within them. For example, absolute beginners know basically nothing, while simply “beginners” already have basic vocabulary and can structure simple sentences. Ditto for intermediate and advanced. Thus, beginning HSK 6 places me at the end of intermediate; in other words, I am still quite far from being at the most advanced level. In fact, at the pace of my learning, it would probably take another two years to get there.
More concretely, what does this level mean in terms of actual capability? I have now lost count on the number of characters I have memorized, but my closest approximation is around 1000. This means that I can read Mandarin if it is on a topic I am familiar with. For example, many of the lessons with my teacher are on technological change (internet, smartphones, AI, etc). Now, if I read content on that topic, I can recognize between 65% and 85% of the characters, and can therefore extract the overall meaning of the text despite there being a sizable number of unfamiliar words. The same applies to topics related to economics or finance, which also are a significant portion of HSK 5 level lessons. To be fully literate in Chinese, it is said, one must know the 1500 characters that are used in 90% of text; I’m almost there, and I estimate that by the end of 2027, when I turn 50 years old, I will achieve that objective.
Another concrete manifestation of HSK 6 is that, when communicating in Chinese, I more and more use Chinese grammatical and syntactical structures rather than, as is the case at earlier levels, using sentence structures that represent direct translations from the native language, a process which emerges from the tendency to think in the native language and then directly translate the vocabulary. Doing so can work in the sense that the listener understands, but it nonetheless is indicative of beginner or intermediate levels. For example, in English, when it is said “I cannot do this”, the direct translation in Mandarin is 我不可以做 (wo bu ke yi zuo); when used, native Mandarin speakers will understand, but in actual Chinese, this kind of meaning is communicated differently depending on context. For example, the Chinese will often say 我做不到; the actual sequential meaning of those characters is “I do can’t done”, and the syntactical meaning directly translated to English is “I can’t/didn’t do it”; or they will say 我做不了; here the sequential meaning of the characters is “I do not unable,” but which actually means “I can’t do it because I do not have the capability to.” Progressing to advanced, language learners more and more communicate using actual Chinese structures that do not have exact equivalents in other languages, and this occurs because one thinks less and less first in the native language, directly translates, and then speaks. Rather, communication has more of an automatic character; structure and meaning are processed independently of the native language and therefore more closely approximate how native speakers communicate.
HSK 6 level also means, of course, that I can speak about more advanced and abstract topics, including history, politics, culture, economics, and health. This capability is not unique to HSK 6; at the HSK 5 level I could already do this, but often with difficulty because at times I lacked the vocabulary to convey what I wanted to say, and made many mistakes in vocabulary and structure. Now, I can speak about these subjects with more depth and nuance while making fewer mistakes, and so, on this measure, it is a question of degree, not of kind. I am assuming that at the most advanced level, therefore, I will be able to speak about all these subjects while hardly making any errors, and rarely struggling with vocabulary.
Despite reaching this advanced level, I still find myself in the odd situation, common among language learners, of fumbling simple words. For example, the other day, I had a lesson with my teacher, and the subject was related to biology as a science, and relatively complex concepts were employed during the conversation. Later in the day, my landlord came to do some repairs in the bathroom, and I was able to communicate with her smoothly until I asked her about the previous tenant and mixed up the very simple words “rent” and “tenant.” She understood my meaning, and the mistake did not impede our communication, but it reminded me of this tendency, which I experienced when I was in Paris studying French—as I reached the advanced level, there were days when I would use French to speak about a complex topic related to politics, history, or finance, and the very same day I would fumble simple words in some ordinary interaction with the staff at the university dormitory. Importantly, I can also fumble simple words in English and Italian if the situation is out of the ordinary, or refers to simple objects I have not thought about in a long time. Therefore, it seems that this is inevitable in any language, regardless of the level. That’s why it is so important to live at least for a period of time in the country where the language one is learning is spoken; these random day-to-day interactions with native speakers often require and therefore force us to learn simple vocabulary or expressions that are not acquired in a textbook or during class.
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