After living years in Taiwan, what is your level of chinese mandarin?
Professionally fluent
And it took Iād say ten years of study to get to that point
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advanced intermediate, i can understand most of whats going on, my key gaps are vocabulary in fields im not exposed too at work or day to day life.
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To begin with a nitpick, I call it āMandarin Chineseā, with āMandarinā being an adjective to describe what kind of āChineseā. Itās very weird to me that some globally recognized universities even call it āChinese Mandarinā. Go down that rabbit hole and youāre making a distinction between the Mandarin spoken in China (Chinese Mandarin) as compared to that spoken in Taiwan (Taiwanese Mandarin). Otherwise there is āChineseā + a bazillion versions of it, of them Mandarin is one.
But to answer the question, I studied for two years in university in the US (so much pointless grammar structure + memorize these vocab words, class entirely in English) and then studied in Beijing for a semester (intense as hell. No English ever and 100+ new vocab words daily). Tested Advanced-low on the ACTFL OPI and WPT at the end. Didnāt take any Chinese my senior year (my moronic university used the mandatory jr yr study abroad as a capstone, even though no one had anything resembling academic proficiency upon return). Lived full time in Taiwan for two years after graduation. After those two years, I tested Advanced-High on the ACFTL OPI and WPT. What I accomplished in four months of intense study (basically 0 to advanced-low during that semester in Beijing) took two years of derping around in a country where the language is spoken (and I was speaking it). (Supposedly once youāre in the advanced levels, you need double all combined classroom time youāve had previously to get to the next level.). Yeah, so anyone quitting their classes at shida and ājust finding a language partnerāā¦yer not learning more quickly that way, though I wonāt deny you might be having a better time.
Iāve lived here for about a decade now. Maybe once every few months I tell myself Iāll hunker down and really focus on my reading, but I donāt see that as a necessary skill, so I might spend two days on that before I quit for another couple of months. I can debate politically charged issues (and fight with my employers in ways that leave coworkers shocked with my language skills), so Iād assume I could test ACTFL-superior at this point, though Iām not interested in paying to find out.
Edit to add: I used my ACTFL levels because both HSK and TOCFL have been explicitly denied their assessment standards by both ACTFL and CEFR. HSK 6, for example, barely scratches C1 level material, but they claim itās C2.
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After four years, I was ālower intermediateā based on the series of textbooks most schools in Taiwan use. But I didnāt study a minute of Chinese in my first year there and, in the following years, I didnāt put nearly enough effort into it as I should have. Iād love to go back and study Chinese full time for a year before finding a job, but I donāt think Iāll ever get the chance.
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i spent 1.5 years I guess studying for HSK. I dropped out of the university course in China after one semester as was expensive and teaching just average. The bulk of my Chinese study came from going to the HSK buxiban everyday and drilling all the time for that. A lot I learned was just for the test, but I plowed through vocabulary (3-4000 characters I guess) and grammar in that period. Like you, this was the foundation for my study after that. I think Chinese needs that foundation or you aināt gonna make it
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Staunchly against calling anything besides Mandarin āChineseā as in Chinese language. Other languages in China are not a dialect of āChinese Languageā but rather very distinct, often mutually unintelligible, languages in the Chinese language family.
P.S: I am ashamed to admit that my Mandarin is low intermediate after 4 years.
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My Chinese level is probably Shite Intermediate. I can follow the average, everyday conversation without any problems but have trouble joining in or responding, because my vocab is poor and I donāt spend enough time talking to people. I can read and write at (I suppose) the level of a nine-year-old.
I keep promising myself to really knuckle down and learn a couple of thousand new words, including the ones I really ought to know professionally. But I just canāt be bothered.
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I tested Advanced High on the OPI ten years ago. Didnāt realize it was commonly used since all I hear about is TECOL and HSK. Iām not sure what HSK level 6 is supposed to be mean but that gets thrown around a lot. Ultimately scores donāt matter, as others have eluded to, itās the prep and discipline that does.
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I can say āni haoā and āxie xieā.
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Why? Mandarin is baihua, itās the bureaucratic language, but itās not more Chinese than the other dialects.
Cantonese is a Chinese language, and closer to traditional Chinese than mandarin, as are most of the southern dialects. They are more āChineseā than mandarin
For example if you read a Tang Dynasty poem in Cantonese, it will rhyme, which it wonāt do in mandarin, because Cantonese is closer to ancient Chinese
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Two years in. Itās trash. Studied one year pretty seriously. Did self study on and off since that over the past year and a half. Could have a simple conversation but canāt talk about anything more advanced.
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Living in a country exposes you to less language then spending kinda all your free time with a language. But it helps your motivation a lot and of course is easier than living abroad of the language.
I learned tiny bits of Chinese at university (second foreign language, 6 semesters with 2 hours per week of classes) - then forgot all of it more or less. Before starting to learn Chinese again 3.5 years ago.
Watched loads of drama and listened to chinesepod.com after 4 months first time travelled to China 4 weeks alone roundtripping the country - trying to get by without using english anywhere.
I was having troubles understanding intermediate levels at chinesepod.
Lived in Taiwan twice 4.5 months (though 2 weeks quarantine each time - so it was 8 months only actually). I can understand 8/10 advanced lessons on chinesepod pretty well now.
I can understand drama without problems - but use english subs to learn more words. I can sometimes play role games - like werewolf - on other days after 2 hours I click out and my brain goes dead. News on tv I have a very hard time still. Movies are okay without subs now to understand the story - but miss many things.
Zero in science or politics.
If I look through the HSK6 book - I can understand about 2/3 of the words - though of course I understand many words not inside HSK6. Can only read about 400 charactersā¦ Need to work on that.
No problem playing other games or following discussions on social meetups (eatgether) or say understanding the instructions given on group trips in Chinese. Rarely that I needed to ask for things being clarified.
My spoken/understanding Chinese was better than 9/10 foreigners I met living in Taiwan long time.
I think playing werewolf or other role games is the quickest way to learn - but you need to be low advanced to give it a try so you donāt fall out in frustration of being lost.
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What do you care? And why the ä½ å„½ļ¼And what is āchinese mandarinā anyway? 
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It allows for the possibility that some forms of Mandarin are not actually Chineseāmine, for example.
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So like Taiwanese Mandarin?
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More like lazy, disorderly éæåä»ās practically-nonexistent Mandarin. (Are those the correct characters?)
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åæå
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In the old days, after, say, twenty or so words, people here would sometimes say, āPlease, speak English!ā
So I mostly gave up, except for an occasional one- or two-word response or question.
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ęÆå¼
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