In this issue, there are 53 new students! They are from various places such as China, Taiwan, South Korean, Japan, and Vietnam. Six of them are from South Korea! Because of the diverse age range, I can have schoolmates that are between 5-50 years old! There really is no end to learning and you can learn regardless of age. I am very curious as to how the children learn.
When it comes to children’s education, all I’m aware of as of now is that the teachers have children’s textbooks with pictures. They also rely on a plan for English level 0 for kids. I was most impressed with the 12-year old 6th-grade primary school student from Korea. On the first day we met, he politely greeted me in Korean. After chatting with him, I found out that he was very good at English!
The next day, I learned that he and I were studying the same level of English (Elementary 1). Wow! I was so surprised! Primary school students are better at English than me.
Next, I will introduce some of the courses and curriculums the school offers. These are general conversation ESL, IELTS, and Business English.
General ESL
The general conversation ESL is divided into five levels. Each level is divided into two semesters (four weeks for one semester). For beginners, they will start with two levels (Elementary and Advanced) under the Foundational ESL. Once they get the hang of that, they can move on to the three other levels (Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced) under Essential ESL.
On the first day of enrollment, students will have to take an exam to see which of the five levels they are fit to be in. General ESL course has seven hours in a day. There are three hours of one-on-one classes and four hours of group classes. The classes are namely listening (hearing), reading, pronunciation, writing, and speaking. Group classes consist of two to four students.
Group class! I personally prefer group lessons as I find them more interesting. I take the classes with my classmates and share stories about our lives. Naturally, different nationalities have different customs and we get to learn from each other in the classroom. There are many interactive activities in the classroom and after school to improve your English skills in your daily life!
One-on-One General ESL
In addition, the general ESL course has another option one-on-one option. In this curriculum, there are only 5 hours of classes a day but all are man-to-man. The schedule is divided into two hours for listening, an hour for reading. For the remaining two hours, students can choose between speaking or writing and pronunciation class.
Choosing the man-to-man General ESL curriculum comes with many advantages as well. Through this, students can focus more because they get to concentrate on personal learning. Also, they get to interact and communicate more with their teachers since it is one-on-one.
Using their time efficiently, students can ask more questions and have more opportunities to practice speaking English in class. Teachers, on the other hand, can find more effective teaching methods suited to their student brought by the long term one-on-one communication. Of course, students can take their lessons at their own pace by asking for clarifications when they are confused.
IELTS Course
The IELTS course is for students who are preparing to study abroad or are planning to migrate. Students have targeted scores to see how well they are doing in terms of learning. IELTS course has seven hours of classes a day. What’s different in IELTS is that they is a mock test every Friday as well as speaking exercises.
The students around me enrolled in the IELTS course work very hard in studying. From the start of their classes till the end of the day, the students feel the weight of the curriculum. Well, this so-called pressure has the power to motivate them!
There’s also the Business English course! Business English include making resumes, job interview training, etc!
Because I am a beginner at English, I started learning with the General ESL course. This is why I have a relatively good understanding of the ESL courses. Choose the course you want according to your needs!
Student Ada, (January 2019)
