I had my assessment yesterday, and they put me in intermediate level classes for conversation (8:30 to 10:30am) and reading/writing (10:30 to 12:30). I've covered some of the materials in the books, but not all, so I'm going to be fairly busy catching up on the things I don't know, as well as learning the new materials. Then we all went out to lunch, to a Korean restaurant (!) Oh well lots of time to taste Chinese food ...
The assessment was pretty straightforward, they asked me questions until I couldn't understand/answer, and then I read a bunch of sentences from a textbook. They told me my pronunciation was pretty good! "So why couldn't the waitresses understand me when I was trying to order fish?" Well apparently for some Chinese it's such a shock when a foreigner speaks Chinese they don't even listen. It's like if a duck came up to you and asked directions to the pool.
Having classes in the morning is good! It will leave my afternoons and evenings open for sightseeing (I can get up early in the morning and study). The students with afternoon classes are planning to study really hard to advance to the morning program for a better sightseeing schedule!
I've had the same experience speaking French. Crushing when you say something in what you think is perfect French/Chinese/whatever and the person you're speaking to looks at you blankly.
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