Certified is not usable

The short answer

I passed HSK 5. I still couldn't get through one meeting in Mandarin. One day in the office a colleague asked me to walk him through a failure analysis. I went quiet and started explaining in English. Certified is not usable. So I built the program I didn't have: you describe your field, and nicheAce writes a language journey around it.

"Wow, your Mandarin is so good!"

I heard that a lot in Beijing. It is what people say to guests. Not to people who are really good.

Nobody tells a colleague their Mandarin is good in the middle of a meeting. They answer the question. The compliment means people are still listening to your language, not to what you are saying. As long as you hear it, you are a guest.

The failure analysis

I'm an engineer. I learned Mandarin in Beijing and passed HSK 5.

Then one day in the office, a colleague asked me to walk him through a failure analysis: what broke, why it broke, and what changes so it does not break again. A normal request at work, and a normal conversation in my field.

I went quiet. Then I started explaining in English.

I wouldn't have passed a job interview in Mandarin either.

Certified versus usable

The certificate was real. It measures what it promises: the language most people need in most situations. Everyday life, the news, a polite conversation with a guest.

My work is not most situations. The words for my own work were never in a course. No textbook teaches the vocabulary of one engineer's failure analysis, because almost nobody else needs it.

And the job doesn't wait while you are looking for the right term. The meeting moves on. Someone switches to English, often you.

That is the gap between certified and usable. It is not a level. It is the words, the situations and the pressure of your own field.

The program I didn't have

So I built it. You describe your field: the grant proposal, the thesis defence, the job interview. nicheAce writes a journey around it. Up to 15 weeks, five exercises a day, five days a week, with scenarios and role plays from your work and characters who push back.

Screen off when you want it: by ear or on paper.

It's English first, for work, research and study. And seven more languages; Mandarin is one of them.

Yours are next

I built it for my own gaps in Mandarin. Yours are next.

If people keep complimenting your English, you know the stage I mean. The goal is not a better compliment. It is the day nobody mentions your language at all, because they are busy answering you.

From "Wow, your English is so good!" to just getting an answer.

nicheAce: language is on Google Play. English first, seven more languages.