Patrick Chan languages spoken, written or signed English
Personal life
Patrick Lewis Wai–Kuan Chan was born December 31, 1990, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He is the only child of Lewis Chan, a lawyer, and Karen, both immigrants from Hong Kong. Arriving at the age of four, Lewis grew up in Montreal, Quebec, and pursued table tennis, golf and weight–lifting. Karen, who won both singles and doubles tennis championships in her native city, moved to Canada in her 20s in order to continue her studies.His Chinese name is Chan Wai–Kuan. At the age of five, Chan showed talent in downhill skiing, but focused on other sports after his family moved to Toronto. He has an enduring interest in many sports, including taekwondo, tennis, golf and mountain climbing.Chan is fluent in English, French, and Cantonese. His parents wanted him to be multilingual, so at home his father spoke French to him, his mother spoke Cantonese, and their son learned English from his daily life in Ontario. Chan graduated from École secondaire Étienne–Brûlé, a French–language school in North York, Toronto, in 2009, prolonging his high school education by an extra year because of his skating. After Chan became national champion, the school created an annual sporting award in his honour. Chan tried to enroll in college a couple of times: first at Colorado College to study international economics in September 2011 and second at the University of Toronto to study social sciences in the fall of 2014.Chan has won numerous off–ice awards for his accomplishments. In January 2008, the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto (Youth Chapter) conferred Chan with the 2007 Chinese Canadian Youth of the Year award. In May 2008, Chan was named Asian of the Year in arts and sports by Asia Network magazine. In January 2009, the Globe and Mail named Chan as one of the most prominent sports personalities in their annual Power List in Canadian sports.In 2020, Chan wed Canadian former pair skater Elizabeth Putnam. In September 2021, they welcomed a son.
linguistic abilities language proficiency language command