Hover a line for its pinyin and translation; hover a word for its meaning. Tap 🔊 to hear it.
Generate a brand-new dialog on any topic, using this lesson's 0 vocab words — plus any words you add below.
Sign in to generate dialogues. It needs a pass — the first ten lessons of every course are free either way.
Ten grades, and a nation of pianists
Learning an instrument in China usually means 考级, a graded examination system running from grade one to grade ten, with certificates that once counted toward school admission. Tens of millions of children have worked through it, most of them on piano, and China became the largest piano market in the world on the strength of it. The wider pattern is 兴趣班 — after-school classes in music, drawing, dance, chess and English — which fill weekends and are rather less optional than the name suggests. Saying you play a little often means ten years of lessons.