Do you know the difference between “Ni hao” and “Zai jian”? If you don’t you’re probably not part of a Chinese class at North Atlanta.

For those not taking Chinese, the language can seem incomprehensible. But fans of the language know there is an elegance in its characters which can contain hidden meanings in the components. There is also something surreal about writing words that have existed for thousands of years, expressions that have evolved with time and are replete with history.

Students take the class here to revel in these realities and to possibly pursue Chinese studies in a college setting. The eventual goal is fluency. But how does any current North Atlanta Chinese student manage this goal beyond taking the language in high school?

Dr. Fangxia Zhao, the school’s Chinese instructor, has provided the perfect way to do so: the HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) exam. Administered at Emory University’s Confucius Institute, it is a proficiency exam that can be taken at various levels. For example, the first-year curriculum, Chinese 1, has its own test, as does Chinese 2, Chinese 3. The test is for non-native speakers of the language and is an internationally standardized test, sponsored by the Ministry of Education in China. Any passing student earns a certificate, which indicates proficiency on that level.

Aside from being as résumé padding, something that looks quite good to colleges, the Chinese Proficiency Exam serves as a confirmation of how well a student retained knowledge from their studies. This is especially necessary because North Atlanta does not offer a standardized test in Chinese at the end of the year, so there’s no real way to assess fluency of the year’s curriculum besides taking this exam. Arabic also suffers from this lack of an end-of-course test, but Emory unfortunately does not offer an exam open to anyone as it does with Chinese. Luckily, French and Spanish are covered exam-wise here at North Atlanta, though.

The Chinese HSK test took place on March 19 and nearly all of those taking Chinese at North Atlanta took the test. Even more impressive, nearly everyone passed it. “It wasn’t really that hard,” said sophomore Gwyneth Smith. “And a big part of that is because of how well Dr. Zhao prepares us.”

So bookmark your calendars, all North Atlanta Chinese students. Look for the next test for a chance to prove yourself. There is a small fee for the HSK test, but it is certainly worth it for a tested show of how fluent you are.