Nov 6, 2008

Test for 漢字

I was wondering how to native speakers of Chinese test their 漢字 knowledge. In Japan, they have this test called the 日本漢字能力検定 which is divided into 12 levels, 1 being the highest. This test isn't compulsary, but it does help in school entrance exams and looks good on your resume. I'm taking the test next February just to give it a go... Most Japanese people only need to pass level 2 (1945 characters - same as Level 1 of the JLPT). I think Korea has a similar test...한국한자능력검정 (韓國漢字能力檢定)

So as I was saying, I was wondering if there is a similar test in Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China or Singapore...

5 comments:

Theresa said...

in singapore, we take Chinese language along with all the rest of the subjects we take in school. we don't really have a test for the chinese characters .. we just learn them like that. actually there are still quite a number of words i don't know. haha.

Nick said...

Oh ok, so it's just part of the curriculum...

How many characters are people officially required to learn in school? Is there a number?

Theresa said...

not really .. we use textbooks that teach us new vocab through stories. usually about 20 new words per chapter.

oh wait, are you learning the traditional chinese characters? in singapore, we learn the simplified characters. back in my parents' times they learnt the traditional characters though. that's difficult i'd say.

Nick said...

I try to learn both, I used mainland China textbooks when I began studying Chinese, but I also use textbooks printed in Taiwan. My personal motto though is "read traditional, write simplified."

Theresa said...

yep, i learn simplified but i can read traditional characters as well. probably because of the taiwanese shows shown in singapore. haha.