Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾<p>Some person in a forum claims they got fluent in <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/Mandarin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Mandarin</span></a> in 8 months. Possible if you are a genius, not possible for most.</p><p>I am Chinese, grew up speaking the 8 tone Hokkien language, so I do have some advantages. I also learned Mandarin in school for a few years. Took HSK classes too. I can read up to Hsk 2/3 depending on the vocab. My listening skills is advanced and my speaking skills are prob hsk 3 or 4.</p><p>But if I go to China and claim that I am fluent in Chinese they'd flay me alive for being an arrogant fool 😆. You can have HSK 6 skills, but that's only beggining level for most Chinese. Hsk 6 is just dipping your toe in the waters.</p><p>Mandarin has such complexities you can't really be fluent in 8 months. For example, understanding chengyu? That would prob take a year or two to even grasp.</p><p>So fluent, perhaps in the West or countries outside East Asia, means being able to read and speak a little. Being conversant. I suppose that's fine. If your reading levels aren't even HSK 3, you can't call yourself fluent because writing and reading is the backbone of the Chinese language. You can't do without it.</p><p>In China, and even in South-East Asia fluent means a whooooole other thing.</p><p><a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/Chinese" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Chinese</span></a> <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/LanguageLearning" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LanguageLearning</span></a></p>