Students at the Global Village school in Beijing, which has seen more students taking the HSK language proficiency test. Provided to China Daily

 

Foreigners bank on proficiency test for added advantage in job market

More foreigners studying Chinese have been taking the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) language proficiency test for a competitive edge at work to ride on the country's growing economic might.

More than 600,000 people worldwide took the HSK test in 2010, 25 percent more than the previous year, figures from Hanban or the Office of Chinese Language Council International show.

Hanban administers the test and is also the headquarters of the Confucius Institute cultural centers.

Most of the participants took tests from Confucius Institutes outside of China, Hanban reports. So far, the office has set up 322 branch institutes in 98 countries and regions since the center was formed in 2004 as part of efforts to promote Chinese language and culture worldwide amid China's economic development.

The country became the second-largest economy last year, contributing 9.5 percent to the global economy. In 2009, Chinese exports already became the world's largest, taking up 9.6 percent of the global export value while imports became the second-largest, with 7.9 percent of the world's total.

Many foreigners say the country's rising clout demands more communication and cooperation being carried out in Chinese, and the HSK is one way to help plug that need.

"An HSK certificate is helpful for us to find a job in China or back home," says Rojer Paulo, 28, from the United States. Paulo has been working and studying in Beijing for four years and decided to take the test for better job prospects back in the United States.

Spaniard Meilan Lee, a 28-year-old international student from the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, says people in Spain used to find it helpful if they simply said they knew Chinese in their resumes "but in recent years, only people who have the official certification can be recognized as possessing the Chinese skills".

Multinational companies (MNCs) like food group Orion Food from South Korea explicitly state that it prefers non-Chinese job applicants with HSK certificates for some positions in China to those without the certification.

An HSK certificate can be proof of the applicant's language ability, which is one of the factors that can influence communication between foreign and Chinese staff in China, the company says. Among foreign applicants who are equally qualified in all other fields, the HSK certificates will make them more competitive, it says.

Still, many MNCs do not use the HSK as a must in recruitment.

"Given the growth of China into a global economic power, having Chinese language skills is a good thing for people all round," says Charles Shen, a senior director for corporate communications at Microsoft China.

"First we hire people for Microsoft and then for the job, so the HSK certificate is not a hard rule for us," Shen says.

Japanese group Mitsubishi Corporation recruits only Chinese people in the region, it says.

"Currently, the foreigners working in the China area are sent by the parent company. They are good at Chinese, but they surely have not taken HSK tests," a spokesman for the company says.

But students hoping to study in China also need to prove their Chinese language ability with HSK certificates.

Top Chinese schools including Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China and Fudan University recognize HSK certificates with similar requirements.

Foreigners who want to apply to Tsinghua for undergraduate studies must achieve the fifth level - the second-highest level - of the latest HSK tests.

For postgraduate studies in majors including the humanities, social sciences, management and economics, applicants must attain the sixth level of the tests.

Applicants for postgraduate studies in the sciences have to achieve the fourth level.

"More students worldwide are taking the exams since more international students want to be enrolled in universities in China and more job applications worldwide highlight the Chinese language requirement," says Shen Yinglu, a Chinese teacher who has been preparing students for the HSK for more than a decade at the Global Village school in Beijing.

The number of foreigners applying to study at Fudan's international cultural exchange school has also been growing steadily.

"Previously, many of the students came from Japan and South Korea but more of them are now coming from North and South America, Europe and Southeast Asia," says Wu Zhongwei, the deputy dean of the school.