Still not intermediate...

Bazza, your Chinese acquisition might not yet be intermediate, but from your language insights, I'd say your Chinese learning is right up there.

Bazza, link is back since this morning. You find it in the "Quick Links" area on the home page.

I tried an initial version of the test (I haven't got the current verson to work on my setup.) Anways, I tried twice. Once with yes = partially understand, and once with yes = fully understand. So, you can kind of create this option for yourself. My own personal experience was that it took a couple years before I could distinguish Chinese phonemes at natural speed. When it happened, it happened within a few days. It was one of the few break-through moments I've had. The rest has been a long slog of little bits accumulating. For what it is worth.

The whole listening test thing is tricky. It asks you: do you understand but how do we define understand? Does it mean understanding every single word and the whole meaning of the phrase or the meaning but not every word and so on. I think it's important not to put too much faith in this test. It's very short and it only tests your listening skills and passive vocabulary in a limited way. When I've taken it recently I've answered yes if I understood the meaning of the phrase or if I understood all words except one or two and it places me on elementary (low). I've taken this as a hint that it was time for me to start explore the elementary lessons but when it comes to speaking I'm definitely still a newbie.

Hey all, I took the assessment and did ok. It put me at the Upr-Inter level. I suppose it doesn’t really matter though. I spend almost all my time in the Ele. lessons. There’s a lot of great material regardless of the level your at (idiomatic expressions,vocab, intonation practice, cultural aspects). My wife spoke Enlgish/Chinese as a 1st language growing up in Taiwan 14yrs. She came to the same conclusion. In the random conversations I get into with some of my Chinese friends, my Chinese fluctuates between newbie and advanced depending on the topic. I suppose it’s like Ken stated that, “all these terms are relative anyways” with an FM voice. ha! Anyways, I think I’m going to take my level posting down. I feel like a black belt in a dojo who just got his butt kick by the newbie white belt. Hai2 ya4! Followed by a chop…

Bazza, I do agree that having 3 different level options would better help pinpoint a user's level.

Where is the Listening Test now? I can't find it anymore.

zhuangshijie " I feel like a black belt in a dojo who just got his butt kick by the newbie white belt. " Hahahaha...that's funny! Your karate analogy is so funny! My listening level is much higher than my speaking level, and that's why I've been placed at an intermediate according to the listening test. But, I really can't express myself at that level; I'm closer to high elementary, low intermediate in spoken Mandarin. There is definitely a dicotomy between those two skills, speaking and listening proficiency.

The test is very tough, your three options make sense. You can't measure ones knowledge by a test.

AZERDocMom, Agreed! I suppose I'm in the same boat. Dichotomy is a fun word. How in the world would one say that in Chinese? I bet theres a story no!? Kinda' like mao2dun4. There should be a lesson set for idioms and words that have stories. It would probably end up being like every word but, oh well... Go ahead C-pod, I dare you. Most idioms in Chinese contain 4 syllables right?

Bazning, I didn't see the test either...

zhuangshijie what is your name in hanzi? in fact, i've wondered what the hanzi is for all the poddies with pinyin names is that your wife in the avatar? she looks lovely; did she grow up in Taiwan? i'm guessing either a businessman/woman's kid or pastor's kid in Taiwan and, was "Bazning" on purpose? clever if it was

Hey, I just found the tests. It looks promising, more accurate. http://labs.chinesepod.com/tests

AZERDocMom, Thanks! Yes, thats my wife (Ma3kai3li4). Shes a beaut no? As it turns out, shes a pastor's kid. Good guess! It's Zhuang1Shi4Jie3. An old friend of mine gave me the name. It sounds like my English name and has good meaning. Bazning was intentional, it seemed quicker... 謝謝

The link to the old listening test is coming back to the Home page. The experimental tests in the Labs are interesting, but they don't measure listening in quite the same way.

Any chance of a direct link here in the meantime?

Me neither, henning. There doesn't appear to be a link to it since the homepage changed.