UWTSD Confucius Institute hosts Youth Chinese test for Swansea children

On 14 May 2022, children from the Swansea Chinese community gathered at UWTSD’s IQ Building to take the Youth Chinese Test (YCT).

This was the first time in two years that the children, who are enrolled at the Confucius Institute’s Chinese School, were able to take the internationally recognised test since the lifting of Covid restrictions. Despite the disruption to teaching caused by Covid over the past two years, there was enthusiastic take-up for the test by both parents and children. A total of 58 children, aged 7 to 15, sat the YCT Level 2, 3 and 4 exams.

YCT is the international standardized test of Chinese proficiency established for Chinese language learners under the age of 15 whose native language is not Chinese. Although the pupils of the Chinese School are ethnic Chinese, not all are able to read and write Chinese when they first enrol at the school. The school was set up with the specific aim of equipping Chinese background children to have excellent Chinese language communication skills for their future education and employability prospects, and also to enable them to communicate with their extended family in China.

Lisa Liu, Confucius Institute Chinese Co-Director commented: “As this was the first time in two years to hold the YCT test, Confucius Institute staff did a lot of thorough preparation, organising registration, completing paperwork and most importantly, preparing the children so they could take the test fully confident of achieving good results. I’m proud of the children and staff for taking such care to make the organisation on the day so successful.”

For more information please contact Krystyna Krajewska k.krajewska@uwstd.ac.uk

Further Information

For more information please contact Arwel Lloyd, Principal PR and Communications Officer, on 07384 467076 / arwel.lloyd@uwtsd.ac.uk