Ms Sarah Mitchell from Australia

Cantonese Beginner Full Day (3/8 – 31/8/2015)

“I wanted to learn Cantonese so that I’d be able to speak more easily with people in Hong Kong and learn more about Hong Kong’s culture. The location of HKLS was good for me and the reviews I read on the website were very positive.

I’m really happy that I chose HKLS. For me, one of the hardest parts of learning a language is feeling very nervous and self-conscious about mispronunciation and making mistakes. But in my class, my teacher created a very comfortable environment so that I didn’t feel embarrassed about trying to speak. He helped me a lot with my Cantonese, including topics that I was interested in that weren’t included in that particular course. All the people who worked at the centre that I had contact with were very friendly.

I was only able to take a month of classes at HKLS, and while I have a LOT more to learn, my Cantonese-speaking friends have told me they think my speaking and writing has improved during that time. My experience with HKLS was very good, and I’d definitely return for classes if I had the chance. 多谢晒 James 同 Branda!”

Ms Elisabetta Cavallo from Italy

Cantonese Beginner Full Day (10/8 – 14/8/2015)

“Although I had the chance to spend only a short period of time at Hong Kong Language School, my experience at the school has really been incomparable.

The environment is nice and welcoming, the people I’ve met while in there were all extremely kind and the location is easy to reach by public transport and it’s very central so that it’ll be easy for you to explore Hong Kong after class.
I attended a Beginner I course of Mandarin and I have been fully satisfied with my choice for the school! My teacher was simply amazing: very precise, friendly and open to share both her experience and knowledge with me!

I strongly recommed both the school and the course I attended, I’m sure you won’t regret choosing it!”

Mr Kelvin Cheong from Canada

Mandarin Intermediate Full Day (16/7 – 9/9/2015)

“I have to say, at first it was difficult to gauge my progress and see what I could accomplish in just two months of daily classes.  However, after a few attempts at conversing with native Mandarin speakers, I became pleasantly surprised to see how long I could keep the conversation going, (despite still struggling with my accent and limited vocabulary at this stage).  Even people who I’ve known prior to this course were quite surprised at my progress.

On top of the speaking, I originally wanted to focus strictly on just verbal, yet these same friends were quite impressed at my improvement in reading and writing as well.  Now I can actually order more food!

I originally chose HKLS due to the competitive pricing with other schools nearby.  I found the learning environment to be quite good and the atmosphere to be comfortable.  At first I was a little taken back when there weren’t enough students at my level and the class duration was suddenly reduced.  However, in retrospect I actually think this became a great thing because this allowed the teacher to focus directly on me, and I also realized that doubling the class length would actually have been quite challenging to remain focused for so long.

I think the duration and the teacher Vera 老师 were wonderful.  I could not have asked for anything more.

I think had I extended my stay in Hong Kong I would have definitely continued my education at HKLS and would definitely (in fact already) have recommended HKLS to my friends.

When a couple friends saw that I had gone from barely being able to read a few words, to writing entire sentences right before their eyes, they suddenly became shocked, intrigued, and now wanted to know more so that they could do the same.

没想到两个月可以进步那么多！

Thank you very much for everything.  I just hope I can continue to improve from over here and I had best not lose everything!”

Mr Arne Finster from Germany

Mandarin Beginner & Lower Intermediate Full Day (6/6 – 1/8/2014)

My name is Arne, I am from Germany and I was enrolled in a full-time Mandarin class at Hong Kong Language School (HKLS) in the time from June to August 2014. I started with (absolute) “beginner-level” and proceeded to “lower intermediate-level” over time. During that time I took part in private lessons as well as group lessons.

Having completed the course, please find my opinion on HKLS and its teachers/lessons below.

School

The school itself is very well located in Wan Chai. It is a 2 min-walking distance from Wan Chai MTR-station and one can have lunch break at one of the several little restaurants around, which also are just steps away.

The administrative staff of HKLS is very flexible in scheduling classes meeting one’s personal timetable. Free beverages and pastries/cookies provide a nice meeting place for students to chat during their breaks.

Teachers/classes

All the classes I attended were held in an amicable and personal atmosphere. During the lessons there was a constant adjustment to the student according to speed or revision of something already learnt. In that respect – or exactly because of it – time was never “dawdled”, meaning one finished one chapter of the book in one lecture.  Furthermore, teachers often explained a word’s etymology, which helped a lot constructing personal mnemonics and they gave some interesting information about cultural background. Hence, the classes can be referred to as “effective” and “constantly proceeding”.

Books/study materials

All the study materials follow the module principle. Each unit consists of a vocabulary list, key sentences/common expressions, and several conversations. All chapters were recorded and are provided as an MP3-file to the student at the very beginning of the classes. Self-explanatory, these audio-files make personal revision at home much easier.

Although various numbers of topics are covered by the books, one quickly can begin to link previous chapters together. Therefore one does not only have the impression of learning a few sentences for one topic, which stand isolated thereafter, but is able to hold (basic but coherent) conversations of some length. As a matter of fact exactly this keeps up the motivation.

Although I leave Hong Kong (at least for now) I warmly recommend HKLS to anyone for the reasons mentioned above.