Mandarin scholarship students in Taiwan generally need to learn Bopomofo (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ), the standard phonetic system used in Taiwan to teach Mandarin. It is also known as Zhuyin fuhao, jhuyin, Bopomo, Mandarin Phonetic Symbols and MPS! Confusing no?

I was browsing shuflies.blogspot.com, and came across a great online Bopomofo resource.

It has been setup on a Quiz based web application called Quizlet. Its stated mission:

“…to make learning vocabulary not a chore.”

The Bopomofo Quizlet has a few games which match English letters to the Bopomofo/Zhuyin symbols. It also has free Bopomofo flashcards.

There’s no audio but if you’d like to listen to Bopomofo/Zhuyin audio files visit this blog.

If you’re looking for Bopomofo learning software have a look at this post:

Learn Zhuyin fuhao/BoPoMoFo software

I wrote about the Mandarin proficiency test a few months ago…. and here.

I picked up my certificate at the post office today. I got 76.25% (61 out of 80). Unfortunately, to pass 77.75% is required (62 out of 80)! Yes, that’s right one mark!

I think I did pretty well considering I only started learning to read Chinese eight weeks before the test. My listening was already quite developed but my reading comprehension needs much more work.

A few months ago, I wrote a letter to the Taipei Times complaining about the lack of resources available for the test. I still think it is a factor. The Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu should provide, at the very least, some targeted word lists. (If you complain perhaps it’s better to do it anonymously….)

According to this, from the government run StudyinTaiwan.org, Mandarin scholarship students who fail will be financially penalized:

A one-month-stipend suspension will be imposed if a recipient fails to submit to his/her individual Mandarin training center, a photocopy of a TOP (Test of Proficiency—Huayu) certificate with results rated at the basic level or above, by July 31st, one month before his/her LEP award period is due. Registration fees for this TOP test are the full responsibility of the recipient.

However, if the recipient succeeds in this TOP test during his/her next-stage award period for a degree program, the suspended one-month stipends as stated above will be reimbursed, by his/her application with the university/college that he/she will be attending.

I’m not sure how up to date this information is but I was told that it is still applicable. What the information above does not specify, is weather or not those who attempted the beginner level will be penalized. The beginner level only started last year. Personally, I don’t think they will. But if you get penalized tell me. I’ll be sympathetic I promise.

The period for rescoring is from now until July 3 2008.

My great teacher 小六老師 was there to give support (on Saturday! :0) to me and all the students from Ming Chuan University’s Mandarin Studies & Culture Center. 謝謝小六老師！

The test ran for 80 minutes and was divided into two main parts, listening and reading.

At the start of each listing section there is an explanation in Chinese and English as well as an example question. During this time it is possible to complete some of the reading questions. I completed 11 reading questions by the time the listening section was finished. So I guess I saved about 10 minutes.

The seating arrangements were a little cramped but the audio setup was good. I only found one of the questions difficult to read. Overall I think the test was well run.

I recently received an email from SC-TOP in response to my complaints about the lack of resources, namely targeted word lists:

Hi,

We’ll announce the new 8000 words for each level in the end of June this year.

Please find them on our website: http://www.sc-top.org.tw/ at that time.

Thank you very much!!

Best Regards,

Steering Committee for the Test Of Proficiency-Huayu (SC-TOP)
–

國家華語測驗推動工作委員會
Steering Committee for the Test Of Proficiency-Huayu (SC-TOP)
電話 Tel：+886-2-3343-3900
傳真 Fax：+886-2-3343-2413

I guess I’ll have to wait and see if they follow through on this. I won’t be holding my breath but hopefully SC-TOP will provide more resources for test takers soon.

Update 05/13:

Blogger Shu Files wrote about her experience with the Test Of Proficiency-Huayu. She appears to have attempted the intermediate level.

So I totally bombed the Huayu Test of Proficiency today. Well, maybe bomb is a little bit inaccurate, but I didn’t finish the test. I’m upset I didn’t budget my time more wisely because what happened was that I spent a lot of time on the grammar section, my weak point, and as a result did not have enough time to finish the reading comprehension section, which I did quite well in when I pre-tested myself. DAMMIT! Anyway, this means that I won’t get a certificate of proficiency this time, but at least I will still be able to use the results as a diagnostic tool when I get them back.

Complete post here.