Mandarin Private Tuition (Dec 2017 to June 2019)

Carolyn Thompson from Britain

Mandarin Beginners Full Day (7/1 – 1/2/2019)

“I chose the HK Language School over its competitors because Mini and Branda were extremely welcoming and forthcoming with their emails. I was instantly impressed with their efficiency and they were very accommodating towards my learning requirements and budget. I spent one month at the school learning Mandarin. I walked away knowing 800 words and able to hold a basic conversation. My pronunciation also improved tenfold. My teacher, Audrey, was incredibly patient and often went out of her way to explain additional rules and concepts beyond the course. Thank you so much – I feel so much more confident to speak Chinese whilst I am conducting my doctorate research in China. I will be back for more lessons!”

The things I thought that were particularly good:
• The level of efficiency in your email correspondence.
• The welcoming and engaging school atmosphere.
• The books were really easy to follow and the learning style really worked for me personally.
• Audrey was excellent. She was incredibly patient – Adrian and I had a lot of questions for her about Chinese language. She often went home and researched how to explain additional concepts outside of the course. I was very appreciative of this.
• I love the tea and cookies! A lovely touch!

The things that could perhaps be improved:
• There are some English spelling errors in the books. This is not a big deal, but it’s good to correct these for a professional operation.
• This is a personal request, but I think it would be better if more Chinese speaking was encouraged during lessons. We would learn the material and read out the sentences but it would have been very beneficial to speak more. Audrey used to test us after each book by asking question’s in Chinese. This was fantastic and I would have liked more of this during the course of the books.

I hope to be back later in the year!

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.

Margarita F from Russia

Mandarin Beginner Private Tuition (15/5 – 23/7/2014)

1, Why did you choose Hong Kong Language School?

— The school has a very convinient location and I think there is a very personalised attitude to everyone. For me, I could not join group classes because of my work schedule, but after I contacted the school, the reply was very quick and there was an option of private tuitition for a reasonable price. The application procedure was very easy and effective.

2, How’s the school environment?

–The overall atmosphere is relaxed and friendly, also there is a small area where one can enjoy complimentary coffee, tea and snacks before or after the class and the staff in general is very positive and professional in terms of organisation, especially Mini Cheung who was very helpful and always replied quickly even to difficult and last minute requests.

3, How’s the class atmosphere?

–My Mandarin classes were always well organised and I enjoyed them a lot. I think the atmosphere in general is very inspiring and this is what kept me motivated in learning such a difficult language.

4, How’s your teacher? Was your class effective? Did you learn what you had expected?

–My teacher was Zoe Zheng, she is a native mandarin speaker from Shanghai. I am very thankful to her because she could always understand what I need to learn and how my progress was going. She is a very open minded and cheerful person, and she helped me to learn a lot of things which were not on the coursebook but related to my work, which was very important for me. Actually I learned much more than I expected and I felt a lot of support from her.

5, Will you come back & take more lessons? Why?

–If I come back to work in Hong Kong I would like to continue my classes for sure. Thanks to my teacher I believed that I can learn Chinese and that it is not so impossible as I thought in the beginning 🙂

6, Will you recommend Hong Kong Language School to your friends? Why?

–Definetely yes. In my working place there are some foreigners who are interested in learning Mandarin and I already told them about my expirience in Hong Kong Language School. I am sure that it is a very good place in Hong Kong to learn either Mandarin or Cantonese. Also I recommend the school to my friends who actually live in Russia but want to come for a short period to study the basic language. I think that this environment is good for them to start. First class to each and everyone from the school who helped me on my way!

Mairead Ross from Australia

Mandarin Beginner & Lower Intermediate Full Day (5/3 – 2/5/2014)

1, Why did you choose Hong Kong Language School?

— I looked all over the internet at all my different options for studying Mandarin in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Language School was the only place that good value, small so I knew I would get good teachers and good quality teaching material, not also not too small or too new.

2, How’s the school environment?

–The school environment was lovely, everyone was so friendly and accommodating. Even the little break area was such a lovely place to meet people and chat.

3, How’s the class atmosphere?

–I really enjoyed all the teachers I had an felt like they would teach at a pace that best suited myself and my classmates. I also felt comfortable enough to commentate with them how I was feeling with the teaching pace.

4, How’s your teacher? Was your class effective? Did you learn what you had expected?

–My teachers were all great. They were both able to judge just how much english to use and just how hard to push my. They were also great at balancing structured lessons with conversation.

5, Will you come back & take more lessons? Why?

–Of course, when I move back to Hong Kong in the future I will need to take more lessons and I will definitely be coming back to Hong Kong Language School.

6, Will you recommend Hong Kong Language School to your friends? Why?

–Yes, I have already recommend it to friends and family, because of how good, experience and well trained their teachers were, however friendly everyone was, and how economically priced their classes are.

Dr Timothy Costello from New Zealand (the gentlemen on the right)

Mandarin Beginner 2 (7/5 – 20/5, 2014)

Lecturer in Psychology
Gregorian University, Rome, Italy
2002 – 2013

I chose the HKLS after a careful internet search and reading some student evaluations. What attracted me were the location of the school, flexibility of the course times, and the general environment of the school. The school is very well located for public transport in the Wan Chai district. I also made use of the public library (225 Hennessy Road) which was good for free Wi-Fi connection. Both Branda and Mini were helpful sources of information and were always a cheerful presence at the reception desk. I enrolled in Mandarin Beginners 2 for ten teaching days. Helen was an excellent teacher, challenging but also very encouraging. The progress I made, especially in spoken Mandarin, was more than I had hoped for. I was very impressed with her teaching techniques that helped me greatly in gaining greater competency and confidence in the language. I found the atmosphere of the school positive, professional, and focused. The course was good value for the price charged and I would certainly recommend others to study at HKLS.