What does the Chinese language examination of Russia look like?
The Deputy Director of the Federal Education and Science Supervision Bureau of the Russian Federation, Anzor Muzaev, expressed during a roundtable conference held by the “Russia Today” international news agency that in 2019, for the first time, the Chinese language subject was included in the national unified examination.
It is noteworthy that the Russian National Unified Examination is equivalent to the high school graduation examination for Chinese students. So, what does the examination paper for the Russian Chinese language test look like?
What does the Chinese language examination of Russia look like?
Mùzāyēf stated, “Currently, over 17,000 Russian middle school students are studying Chinese, including 3,000 senior students. He mentioned that in the 2019 national unified examination, hundreds of graduates passed the Chinese language subject.”
Mùzāyēf further elaborated that as more and more universities include the Chinese language subject scores from the national unified examination in their entrance exams, the number of graduates taking the Chinese language test will also increase.
In the past decade, the growth rate of Russians learning Chinese has been astonishing. In 1997, there were approximately 5,000 Russians studying Chinese; by 2007, the number reached 17,000, and in 2017, the number of Chinese learners had already reached an impressive 56,000.
– 穆扎耶夫 (Mùzāyēf) – Anzor Muzaev (Name)
– 国家统一考试 (guójiā tǒngyī kǎoshì) – national unified examination
– 入学考试 (rùxué kǎoshì) – entrance examination
– 高校 (gāoxiào) – universities
– 毕业生 (bìyèshēng) – graduates
– 学习汉语 (xuéxí Hànyǔ) – study Chinese
– 俄罗斯人 (Éluósī rén) – Russians
– 学生 (xuéshēng) – students
– 年内 (niánnèi) – within the past decade
– 数量增长速度 (shùliàng zēngzhǎng sùdù) – growth rate
– 人数 (rénshù) – number of people
On August 27th，2019, the Russian Federal Institute for Educational Reform (教改研究所 jiàogǎi yánjiū suǒ) unveiled the demonstration version of the Chinese language examination for the Russian National Unified Examination (俄罗斯全国统一考试 Èluósī quánguó tǒngyī kǎoshì) for the first time, along with the corresponding grading criteria. The written test comprises 42 questions, divided into four sections: “Listening,” “Reading,” “Grammar, Vocabulary, and Writing,” and “Composition.” The total duration of the examination is three hours.
Let’s take a look at the multiple-choice questions, which are about distinguishing the usage of “的” “得” and “地”.
Next is the reading comprehension section,
Essentially, it involves determining the correctness of statements.
From 2022, the Irish Leaving Certificate (高考 gāokǎo) will incorporate Chinese language examination as an essential measure of the Irish government’s 2017-2026 Foreign Language Teaching Strategy (外语教学战略 wàiyǔ jiàoxué zhànlüè). Richard Bruton, the Minister for Education and Skills of Ireland, unveiled this important initiative in December 4, 2017.
Richard Bruton mentioned that since 2014, Ireland has implemented some short-term Chinese language training programs with the aim of promoting a better understanding of Chinese language and culture among Irish people. Starting from 2020, Chinese will be included in the foreign language subject of Irish university exams. And by 2022, Chinese will be one of the subjects in the Irish Leaving Certificate (高考 gāokǎo).
Chinese Rises as the Third Popular Foreign Language in “British A-level” Exams
In August of this year, according to the British website “The Daily Telegraph,” the number of candidates choosing Chinese in the “A-level” exams, which are commonly known as the “British A-level” exams, has surpassed German for the first time, making Chinese the third most popular foreign language in the UK.
The report states that this year, 3,334 students took the Chinese A-level exam, which is an 8.6% increase compared to the previous year. French remains the most popular foreign language subject, followed by Spanish. However, the number of candidates for both languages decreased by 8% and 4% respectively compared to the previous year.
15,000 Indonesian Students Participate in National Chinese Proficiency Exam
In December 2017, the third annual HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) Chinese proficiency exam was held in Jakarta, Bogor, and Malang. A total of 15,627 candidates participated in the Indonesian National Chinese Exam, setting a new record for the number of candidates in previous years.
Currently, there is a growing enthusiasm for learning Chinese among people from various countries around the world.
Data from the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) shows that the UK is actively promoting Chinese language education at all levels, including issuing national decrees, establishing specialized positions in the Ministry of Education, regularly inspecting Chinese language teaching curricula, and training local Chinese language teachers. More than 5,200 primary and secondary schools in the UK offer Chinese language courses, with the goal of reaching 400,000 Chinese learners in the UK by 2020.
According to statistics, currently, more than 300 primary and secondary schools in Germany offer Chinese language courses, and among them, nearly 70 middle schools treat Chinese as a formal credit course and include it as a subject in the high school graduation examination.
