Learning Korean

Korean used to be completely foreign to me. The vertical and horizontal lines, circles and squares looked more like mysterious symbols than language. Unlike Japanese, as there are no Chinese characters, it was impossible to make sense out of the symbols. I never imagine I would learn Korean. It was not until last year when I fell in love with
the mega-hit KBS drama, “Descendants of the Sun” and the main character Song Joong Ki. Within days of finishing “Descendants of the Sun”, I decided to learn Korean. So I contacted my younger’s sister old Korean teacher, Mr. Alex Nam and arranged my first Korean lesson within a few days. I do not call Alex by his name as he is my teacher and I call him “Seon Saeng Lim”.

Although our syllabus is not based on any textbooks, Seon Saeng Lim’s teaching is very well structured. We started with the Korean alphabets “Hangul”. Gradually, Seon Saeng Lim introduced different grammatical structures. While grammar is often considered as dry and boring, I appreciate that Seon Saeng Lim placed a lot of effort in explaining the grammatical rules. Rules are always followed by examples in English. Seon Saeng Lim would explain, step-by- step, how to turn the English sentences into Korean. As Seon Saeng Lim’s explanation is systematic and logical, it is not as difficult as I originally thought. To reinforce learning, Seon Saeng Lim often gives revision to newly learnt grammar in the following lesson.

After finishing the essential grammar, which took us around three to four months, we started having some basic conversations. Under Seon Saeng Lim’s guidance, I was able to make simple sentences based on the grammar and vocabulary learnt. It was interesting and fun as the conversations are not textbook stories. I am able to express
what is happening in my daily life using simple Korean. Even though there is still a long way to go, I am very happy with the progress of my Korean learning. I do not think this would be possible without Seon Saeng Lim’s systematic and logical teaching. He is also very patient and often repeats the sentences a few times until I can become familiarized with the structure.

We all need motivation to commence a learning process. My initial motivation with Korean was simple. I was hoping that I could understand Korean drama. My goal now is that I hope I can converse in simple Korean when I travel to Korea. Goals are important as they help us to stay focused with the learning process. Of course, nothing comes easy with foreign language learning. We still need to put in a lot of time and effort in studying and revising. I recall Seon Saeng Lim once said it is always the most difficult at the beginning because everything is new. However, learning is accumulative and after a while, new learning would become old knowledge. This is so true. I feel fortunate that I can learn Korean from Seon Saeng Lim as not only his teaching is systematic and structured, he is also a very encouraging teacher with great sense of humour. I always have so much fun in my Korean lessons. Hopefully, I would be able to converse in simple Korean when I next travel to Seoul!

Learning Mandarin in Hong Kong become a great experience, I am a banker myself, my schedule is always busy, therefore, I can only take private lessons, I need the flexibility of the lessons, I came to International Language Centre in Central in 2012, the place is very close to my office, and the teachers there are very professional with high flexibility, I know I need to learn more Mandarin and do my homework, sorry my teacher, I forgot to do my homework again, see you in the class! 🙂

To be honest, I don’t know why but finding a Arabic tutor in Hong Kong is such a difficult task for me, I tried a few language schools before, but I have to say they are not professional enough for me to learn the Arabic language, I have been taking lessons with International Language Centre since 2015, until this moment, I am very satisfied with me teacher and the centre, I believe it is a great place to learn the Arabic language, I high recommend ILC.

I have been learning Korean over 10 years. If I don’t think learning Korean is fun, I would not have continued learning it for so many years. As I am interested in K-pop, Korean drama, movies and songs, learning Korean can help me understand more about Korean culture and it can help me understand better about the subtext of their
lyrics, scripts and etc. This better understanding brings more fun when watching these dramas and movies. It helps me to appreciate more about the Korean culture and its people.

I also like travelling to Korea during different seasons. Korea is a big country compared with Hong Kong and it has distinct four seasons. There are different natural scenery at different times. Being able to communicate in Korean with Korean people, it makes these travels much more fun. If you know some Korean, it will be much easier for trying local Korean food, doing shopping, taking mass transport.

Besides, being a Chinese, learning Korean is extra funny as many of the Korean nouns are originated from Chinese. The pronunciation and the meaning are similar to Chinese words. Therefore, being a Chinese has advantages in learning Korean than people of other nationalities. My Korean idol is So Ji Sub. Because of him, I had the drive of learning Korean at the very beginning. I wish that I can talk to him in Korean when one day I meet him in person. This also makes learningKorean fun when you have the incentive.

我從2016年年底開始學習阿拉伯語，在短短的三個月的時間裡，我學到了阿拉伯語發音，一些簡單的語法，我現在可以做一些簡單的交流，我覺得國際語言中心的阿拉伯語課程很值得推薦，我在60個小時的個人1對1課程中，學到了非常多的知識，這間學校值得推薦。

Learning Mandarin has never been so interesting! Me and my husband moved into Hong Kong 2 years ago, and we started learning Mandarin since then, we took a 30 hours Mandarin course in Wanchai, honestly It was not what we were looking for, I wouldn’t say the tutor is not good, but I think learning a language should be more interesting than just reading the book and repeating the words, therefore, after 30 hours class, we decided to leave, 2 months after that, we picked up Mandarin again, this time, we found the ILC which is located in Central, the class is always fun and professional, teachers there make learning Mandarin language more fun, I like the teaching method and after 3 months learning at ILC, I think my Mandarin improved a lot!

This is already my 6th months learning Cantonese in Hong Kong, I started learning Cantonese in the U.K online, I learned a few words but couldn’t make a full sentence, my teacher in ILC told me how to make a sentence in Chinese with correct grammar, I think I really need a Cantonese tutor to teach me and practice with me the tones and sentence structure. I believe that I found the right place to learn Cantonese, if you are interested in learning Cantonese, you may try ILC.

I was trying to learn Mandarin language by myself in 2010, at the beginning, the tones in Chinese language really drives me crazy, especially the 2nd tone and the 3rd tone, for me, the sound the same, and I knew the tones really tell the difference between one word and another, I think I must find a Mandarin tutor in Hong Kong, I enrolled a 30 hours Beginner Mandarin Course in ILC, after 10 hours lesson, I felt much confident with the tones, my teacher, May is really patient when she was teaching me Mandarin, now I can speak accurate Mandarin already.

Hong Kong being what it is, I found that I didn’t have much time in the week to focus on learning Cantonese and realised that I wouldn’t get very far at all under my own steam. So I approached ILC initially to ensure that I was at least doing something each week towards learning the language in a regular and systematic way. I have had only a one hour lesson each week now for just over a year and in that time Charles has brought me to the point where I can communicate in everyday situations and pick up quite a lot of what people are talking about.

Hi, This is Eko, I am a Japanese, I took Cantonese course for Beginners when I came to Hong Kong 3 years ago, I realized that learning Cantonese can really help me a lot for daily things, since my English speaking skill is not very good, therefore, Cantonese becomes more important, now I am taking Cantonese class with my teacher, Joan Lee, she is from Hong Kong, I would highly recommend her as the Cantonese teacher in this centre.

Learning Mandarin in Hong Kong is a fantastic experience! I work in a media company, I need to travel to China quite often. while travelling in China, I believe that Speaking Mandarin is a must, people in mainland China do not speak very good English, therefore, I must learn Chinese! I am a native English speaker, Chinese for me is really difficult at the beginning, especially the tones, but after 6 months, I am very happy about learning the Mandarin tones, I think the language is beautiful with rhythm, my tutor Jessie told me that learning the tones is the most important thing in learning Chinese, I trust her,  and now my Chinese ascent is perfect! I will keep learning Mandarin Chinese!

ILC is a fantastic place to learn languages and I highly recommend it! A few months ago when I was in search for a good school to improve my Mandarin speaking. I was very lucky to have found ILC as I believe it is the most effective school I’ve tried. In just a short amount of time, I began to be able to make basic conversations!

Learning Arabic is challenging for most of English and Chinese speakers, but after taking the Arabic Beginner course for 60 hours, I must say that I really really enjoy learning the Arabic language, not only because the interesting language, and also the beauty of this language, learning Arabic is only because of my job at the beginning, but now, I love this language and it becomes to my hobby! Thank you International Language Centre for providing such a great Arabic learning school for me!

My wife and I came to Hong Kong for work from Spain, our English language skill was not good enough for business purpose, we took English course for intermediate level for 3 months intensively, and our English improved significantly, we would recommend this school if you want to learn English in Hong Kong, the school has a good location and teachers are professional.

I learned Mandarin for 3 years before taking Korean lessons in Hong Kong, I think Korean language is easier to learn than Chinese, my teacher made the lesson fun and she teaches in a way that I feel very easy to follow, therefore, I completely grasped the Korean phonetic system in just about 6 hours, I have been taking over 100 hours of Korean lesson, and I will definitely continue with them.

What an enjoyable and instructive way into a difficult language! After 18 months of Cantonese Language Courses Hong Kong at the ILC in Central, I can safely say that it’s one of the best investments of time and money I have made here in Hong Kong. Learning Cantonese in Hong Kong is essential!

I took 40 days, Monday to Friday intensive Cantonese lesson in Hong Kong in 2013, this program covered 2 levels, Cantonese Beginner course level 1 and 2, in this 120 hours intensive language course, I learnt a lot, I had tried to learn the Cantonese language by myself before coming to Hong Kong, but my pronunciation was so terrible at that time, now with their help, I can speak the language really really good! Thank you!

I am now having English lessons in Hong Kong 3 times a week, 2 hours each session, the improvement of my English skill is great, now I can write English letters well and speak to native speakers quite fluently. As a mainland Chinese person, we did not have much exposure into English language on a daily basis, Hong Kong was an English colonial, therefore, I really to speed up learning English.

Hi, I am from Japan, I am a chef working in a local Hong Kong restaurant, my English is poor, I studied English at ILC for one year, my English now is better than before, learning English is never easy for us, Japanese, but I will keep taking more English lessons in Hong Kong, in ILC, all the English teachers are very nice and patient, they are wiling to correct my mistakes. Thank you!

I was amazed at the quality of mandarin course in ILC. their Mandarin course has really helped our business and me for my personal interest, I have been thinking to learn Mandarin for a long time since I graduated from University, In 2009 Summer I came to Hong Kong and found this school, luckily I took the Beginner Mandarin Course Level 1 and 2, in 60 hours course, I could already start to speak, the class atmosphere is brillant!

I have been learning Mandarin at the ILC for about 2 months, I feel my Mandarin improved a lot and now I can speak a little bit when I go to China for business, sometimes, I need to have presentation in Mandarin, now I can slowly manage to do that, my teacher helped me to build up my confidence. I understand that tones are very important in Mandarin, therefore my teacher told me to keep practising the tones, at the beginning, it is really tough, since all my tones were wrong, and it was so frustrated to correct every single words, but now I can pronounce the tone perfectly , this is really really helpful for my mandarin learning.

Me and my wife took Cantonese intensive course in Hong Kong in the year 2010 for 2 months, we were doing Monday to Friday 3 hours a day, I believe this is the best way to learn a foreign language, and after 2 months studies, I was right, the centre is very easy to find and teachers, there are very friendly and helpful, my teacher, Jassie is very professional, she is local Cantonese, speaks perfect English, she taught us the Cantonese romanization system, and correct our pronunciation mistakes, I learned a lot with her, she is a very strict teacher but I know she wanted us to speak perfectly, learning Cantonese is never easy but it is not impossible.

I love Hong Kong and the language, I knew Cantonese language will be a very tough language to learn but I chose it! I was very unsure if Mandarin or Cantonese should be the language to learn, but my teacher from ILC told me that if I live in Hong Kong and work here, I should take Cantonese lessons, after 1 year of studying at the centre, I felt my Cantonese speaking levels improved so much! When I first came to Hong Kong in 2002, I could not speak a word, but now I can speak a full sentence with grammar all correct! I am going to learn the Chinese characters very soon!

Learning Mandarin in the International Language Centre was an amazing experience! I took 60 hours intensive Mandarin course here, and I learnt so much. In this 60 hours course, I realised that I have learned more than my 6 months Mandarin course before, our Mandarin tutor is nice, friendly and professional.

I am from Spain, I need to find a job in Hong Kong, I love this city but my English was not good enough for a company to hire me, therefore, I took English course in Hong Kong in the ILC, after 6 months studies in ILC, I realised that my English has improved a lot, my grammar is improved, my listening skill is improved and I am confident to speak English in front of many people, I want to get perfect English, I need to improve my pronunciation, and I will keep learning English in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is incredible place to learn languages and the school, ILC was great at all levels for learning Korean language, I was very lucky with my teacher, she was always helpful and lovely, and the most important thing, she is very professional. Immersing in a new language is very important if you want to learn the language, understand this, I took a intensive Korean course in Hong Kong, spent almost 8 weeks to learn the language, it was in a group class with all other classmates from different nationalities, the teacher let us get into the Korean language very quickly, and we had a lot of interaction while learning the language. I would highly recommend this school with no hesitation to anyone who is really interest in learning the Korean language, I am very satisfied with them and my level of Korean.

I love Arabic language! We were going to locate our business in Arabic speaking countries recently and Arabic language is a must to learn before we go there, I took 6 months Arabic lessons in Hong Kong with my tutor from Egypt, he is an excellent tutor, he taught me about the language, grammar, pronunciation, culture and everything I need to know before going to a absolutely new country, now I have more confident to speak to the local and understand more about the culture.

I am so happy with the International language centre! I have been studying Mandarin in Hong Kong for almost 2 years in a small group, from zero Mandarin to now I can communication with my mainland business clients, I insisted not to learn the Chinese characters at the beginner of my lesson, but my tutor told me to learn it, and now, I am so happy that I can already read almost 1000 Chinese Characters, and everyday the number is increasing, that actually really help me a lot in everyday life!

Hi, My name is Li, I took 60 hours English Course in ILC in Hong Kong, my goal was to pass TOEFL, and I did it!

Hi, My name is Elisabeth, I have been learning Cantonese with my Cantonese tutor, Alex for 2 years, I am from Germany, my native language, of course, is German, and I realised that the grammar in German is similar to Chinese, this is a great advantage for me! I have been living in Hong Kong for 3 years, I could hardly understand anything when I first came to this city, but now, after 2 years studying Cantonese in Hong Kong, I am quite confident to speak to the local people as well as making friends with them, learning Cantonese is tough, but I think it is not impossible, I would suggest you take Cantonese classes two or three times a week, 1.5 hours each time, after two years, you will be like me!

In summer time of 2010, I was looking to improve my English conversational skill and English listening skill, I came across this school, ILC, and took 2 months course, 60 hours English private lesson, I admit that ILC is one of the best English language learning centre in Hong Kong, if you are looking for English schools, ILC should be on your list.

What a great experience taking Mandarin lesson in Hong Kong in the International Language Centre! With 6 months  in the Mandarin Beginner Course in 2010, I could already spoke a lot and talked to the local people when I went to a Shenzhen trip! The teachers and my other classmates are so nice and helpful, I could not have done that without them!

I was looking for a great location and great Cantonese tutor to improve my Cantonese, ILC was the best so far, it is located in Central area near my office in Charter House, I can come to the centre in 5 minutes times, I have been living in HK for almost 3 years, and I have been taking their lesson for about 1 year and half, I am very satisfied with their performance, and most importantly I can talk to the locals now!

I have been living in Hong Kong for 2 years, I slowly realised that learning the Cantonese language is very helpful for my daily life, I don’t have to be fluent in the Cantonese language, but my goal is to understand daily conversations including shop talk and taxi words, these are very important to me in Hong Kong, I wouldn’t say you cannot live in Hong Kong without speaking Cantonese, but if you speak a little, it definitely will make your life much easier, so a year ago, I started to look for Cantonese language schools in Hong Kong, I have tried a few schools, but ILC is so far the best language learning centre, the material they used in very up-to-date and their Cantonese teachers are very nice and experienced, learning Cantonese is not a easy job, but it indeed very fun.

My daughter has been learning Korean in Hong Kong in ILC for over 6 years since 2000, me and my husband really happy with her progress of Korean language, the tutor there is professional and made the lessons interesting and easy to follow.