HSK

No one in Alex’s family can speak Mandarin beyond the basics so he has had very little assistance from them. His grandparents only speak Cantonese. Despite this, through his hard work, he was able to independently operate the home internet test and challenge the HSK Level 4 Exam at the young age of 12, becoming the youngest candidate of this level since the Toronto Chinese Test Center started taking the tests 21 years ago. Chinese Version 中文报道

Click here to visit the video

Alex asked to learn Chinese in SK. At 5 years of age, Alex decided to learn Chinese because he wanted to be able to communicate better with his grandparents. In his first year, he took 1 hour sessions twice a week with a tutor. The following year, he transferred schools to The Dalton School, a bilingual Mandarin-English School in Toronto. He stayed at The Dalton School until grade 5 (technically he finished grade 6 as he had skipped a year academically, but Alex’s family did not officially skip him a grade, noted by Mr. Fox, Alex’s dad).

Alex and his classmates participating in The Dalton School Chinese New Year Play.

In the summer of 2019, Alex spent 10 weeks in China learning Mandarin at The Mandarin House in Shanghai and Omeida Language School in Yangshuo. Alex loved living and learning in China. He had the opportunity to travel across a lot of China and see many different sites. He found it fun to learn with so many different people from all over the world. Most importantly, he made a number of great Chinese friends in China who took him to watch Chinese movies, taught him in Mandarin how to skateboard, took him bike riding, etc. 

Alex and his classmates participating in the Dalton School Christmas Play.

His favourite memory was attending a Shanghai Shenhua FC football game with a passionate, local fan who bought tickets in the “Superfan” section. Alex spent the game learning all of the Shenhua songs in Chinese and spent the night cheering for the local team.

This past year, Alex pursued independent studies and continued his Mandarin learning with The Mandarin House online: studying 2 hours of Chinese a day for four days a week. He plans to continue his Chinese studies next year at the University of Toronto Schools (UTS) where he will be attending next year.

According to Mr. Fox, Alex's surname is Hu (胡), which comes from the English surname “Fox”. They know it is not a common surname, but one that does exist. His first name, Wen Li (文立), expresses the expectation of the elders: “knowledge makes one stand. " It was chosen by his great-grandfather, who was a school teacher in China many decades ago, and wanted to choose a name that was strong, smart and easy to write in case he never ended up learning Chinese well enough. 

Alex intends to become fully fluent in Chinese. In his interview, Alex says that he would one day like to study in China to take advantage of his bilingual (English and Chinese) backgrounds to further promote deeper relationships between Canada and China.  

Written by: Angie Xu, Cindy Wang, Cara Wang

Alex and his brother Nate Fox learning how to write Dongba calligraphy in Yunnan, China

Alex and his father, Mr. Bill Fox, summiting the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in Lijiang, China

 

Perfect Summer Camp Solution

With things opening up here in Ontario, we’re sure that your kids are itching to meet new people and do lots of fun things this summer! For parents who don’t want their kids playing games all day, we have the perfect solution for you.

HSK Toronto (a non-profit organization sponsored by Service Canada) is offering a special deal right now on their YCT Chinese Language and Heritage Summer Course, offered fully online this summer.

Your child will be able to learn a new language (or brush up on their existing Chinese skills) while also learning more about Chinese culture. Activities include arts and crafts, Chinese calligraphy and more!

Super Small Class Sizes: 1:1, 1:2, 1:3

We have made our classrooms very small this year because we know how hard online learning can be. To make sure your kids get the attention they need from their teacher, our class sizes will be smaller than before! One on One, One on Two and One on Three for you to choose!

Globalized Certificate for University Scholarship

Completing the International Chinese Proficiency Test (also known as the Chinese version of TOEFL) has many benefits. For example, passing the test is a requirement for many overseas students when they are applying to prestigious Chinese universities such as Peking University. It is also a prerequisite for overseas students to study in China and participate in summer/winter camps as well. In the past 10 years, Chinese proficiency has become one of the application requirements for many post-secondary scholarships. The HSK Toronto Test Centre also offers a scholarship of our own for those who pass the HSK Test requirements.

Sponsored by Service Canada

The HSK Toronto Test Center is a registered non-profit. This program is sponsored by Service Canada.

Right now, we are offering a 15% discount for everyone that signs up before Canada Day, July 1st. There are also more STACKABLE discounts. Returning students do not need to pay the registration fee. And those who are signing up in groups of 3 or more OR signing up for 8 weeks straight will receive an ADDITIONAL 10% off! Don’t hesitate and make sure to make the most out of Summer 2021!

The Youngest Candidate to Pass HSK Level 1

Alexander Makarytchev (Alex) passed the HSK Level 1 test this April with flying colours and he was only 8 years old when he did it! But what makes Alex special isn’t just the fact that he is the youngest person to pass the HSK Level 1 test since the Toronto HSK Testing Centre was established at the start of the century in 2000, but he is also not a native Chinese speaker. Unlike other candidates who write the HSK tests, Alex is Russian and grew up speaking his parent’s language and English. Even though Chinese is often described as one of the hardest languages to learn, this just goes to show that with a little bit of excitement, support and hard work, anyone can learn Chinese. 

Read Chinese Version

Starting From Grade One

Alex’s journey in learning Chinese began in Grade 1 and has been going on for about one and a half years now. Alex grew up with a few Chinese-speaking friends in his neighbourhood and became very fascinated with the language and the culture as well. China is a country with over 5000 years of history and the language reflects that. It is no wonder little Alex was so drawn. As a result of his keen interest, he begged his parents to enroll him in Chinese school. According to Alex’s mother, “Although learning Chinese did not quite fit into the standard set of extra-curricular activities which western parents had in mind, such as math, music, or sports, we still wanted to support him and give it a go since he was so driven and self-motivated!”

Challenges Along the Way

During the first stage of learning, Alex was met with a few challenges. His parents originally enrolled him in a group class, but this format did not work well for Alex. Even though the teacher was very nice and accommodating, it was hard for Alex, who had zero experience learning Chinese, to keep up with the rest of the class. Since no one in his family spoke Chinese, Alex had little chances where he could practice the skills he learned in class. Alex’s parents saw that he was becoming dejected and decided to look for a different format that would keep Alex excited and motivated. They decided to go with a private teacher as this would allow Alex to have the most practice and the teacher would only focus on what worked and didn’t work for Alex. Their new teacher, Ms. Lera Trubyuk, has been a very important person in Alex’s Chinese learning journey. His success is much owed to her efforts and patience.

Parent's Support

At first, Alex started off with just 30 minutes per week of online classes with his mother sitting beside him to ensure that he would be able to focus for the full 30 minutes as Alex was still young. Soon after the success of the 30-minute classes, they increased the length and frequency to two 45-minute classes per week. Alex was also assigned homework in between classes which he completed independently. Both Ms. Trubyok and Alex enjoyed the classes a lot. The teacher made sure that she used a variety of materials to make the classes engaging and ensure Alex stayed interested and focused for the whole class. As for materials, they have been using Happy Chinese, HSK Mock Tests, Chinese readers, Chinese character books and cartoons as their course material. They also practice Alex’s oral skills a lot as he cannot practice them at home.

Click here to check out our classes

Strong Memory

Besides Alex’s strong work ethic, he also has a very good memory which has helped him in his journey of learning Chinese! Alex’s teacher described his memory as “exceptional” and they are often impressed by the fact that Alex is able to memorize most words from the first time he sees them. He continues to remember the words from long ago without needing to practice too much in between!

Goals

Although the current end goal of learning Chinese is still “hard to say” according to Alex’s mother, their family understands the significance of learning Chinese. Since Alex is still young, he studies Chinese purely because he enjoys it. But learning Chinese has many future benefits, such as being able to connect with more people, learning about a new culture, and being able to work in new countries too! Alex has even promised his mother that he will be their sole interpreter during their future travels to China. To Alex’s parents, learning a new language that is not from Europe, which his ears and eyes are not used to, is a very beneficial intellectual challenge. Overall, given the significance and richness of Chinese culture, they feel that the ability to speak and understand Chinese will be a great benefit for Alex’s future life.