We love the milestone concept for learning Chinese. Why? Physiologists say goal oriented learning is important to stimulate adaptive motivations and behaviours. In our words, students simply feel more oriented, and more enthusiastic to learn harder to achieve their goals.
But that’s not how people are asking the question. New or early stage students always ask the question like: “how can I get fluent in Mandarin”, “how many years do I need to get fluent in Chinese”, or with a more ambitious goal, “fluent in Mandarin in 3 months”.
From our perspective, fluency is always the goal for learning a language. But if we are to dissect the Chinese language, we would say vocabularies and expressions are the most important elements for progressing. Ultimately speaking a language fluently means saying sentences people will understand.
The new HSK test is an international standardized exam that tests and rates Chinese language proficiency. There are six levels in HSK, which represent well the milestones in Chinese proficiency. It’s very easy to begin the first two levels, encourage readers to take our Beginner and Elementary course. The further progress is demanding with a lot more vocabulary and character literacy needed.
