English was seldom used when studying in junior secondary. Past paper training was arranged in senior years. This Chinese major showed improvement with more frequent use of the language in university.

International students shared their experiences in English when they visited this Communications major’s secondary school. She preferred reading books to newspapers.

Watching and discussing movies taught this Quantitative Finance major speaking and listening. Secondary school English classes in the UK focused on practising for exams. Reading newspapers and writing reports let her learn vocabulary and writing style. She reads for her university classes.

Slang in movies and TV series expanded this Science major’s vocabulary. She likes stories about vampires. Clipping news articles in secondary school helped build her vocabulary.

All subjects in a secondary school summer programme used English as the MOI. Reading is boring, so this Nursing major likes to watch exciting dramas like Breaking Bad.

This Japanese major watched movies with friends. Her favourite is Love, Rosie. In secondary school, she read The Five People You Meet in Heaven and did a book report.

Visiting an English Corner while studying in the Mainland helped improve this Accounting major’s spoken English. He likes A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. He reads financial magazines including The Economist.

Studying for the college entrance exam helped this Design major build a closer relationship with her teacher and friends. She did well in IELTS even though she didn’t prepare as well as she could have.

Grammar-translation in secondary school was boring but effective in learning for this Linguistics major. She has read novels before and now she usually reads newspapers and magazines.

Secondary school English activities included role-playing based on books and Halloween for this Chinese major. She also took a university English course.

English learning started in Grade 3. This Translation major attended the Cambridge English courses in primary school. She travelled to the UK in senior secondary.

This student’s mother enrolled her in an activity-rich tutorial programme with foreign English teachers in the Mainland. As a postgraduate student in Hong Kong, she enjoys English textbooks. She has read Harry Potter. She likes printed books.

Although it was hard preparing for the DSE, this Mathematics major enjoyed support from his English teachers. After reading the Chinese version of The Hunger Games, he read the English one.

Senior secondary exposed this International Studies major to terms unique to Chemistry and Biology. She has improved her aural comprehension while learning in university.

Communicating in English in university is more interesting than secondary school as this student can take part in activities with people from different countries. She read part of Tuesdays with Morrie. Her course material is in English.

As a child, this Computer Science major played word games with his mother. He started reading an English newspaper in Secondary 1 to prepare story summaries.

Reading scientific articles and the South China Morning Post helped expand this Biology major’s vocabulary. It takes him more time to read books than the news because of the different vocabulary involved. He read Dear John and then watched the movie.

The university English centre provides movies and games for this Chinese major. He became fascinated with English novels after a teacher introduced Frankenstein to him. He likes Stephen King’s The Mist.

Vocabulary provided by a teacher helped this Chinese major in his writing exams. Reading the whole series of The Chronicles of Narnia is an achievement. He had to take guesses at the meanings of difficult words and found the movies helped understand the books.

The SBA involved watching movies for this History major. In Form 6, she read a lot of past papers to prepare for the DSE.

Although a university teacher was strict, this Media Arts major learnt many things from her. A course book on communication was difficult to understand. Harry Potter is the first English novel she read.

Secondary school English classes made this Biology major wonder if the language is for communication or exams. He found classes boring and useless as they were exam-orientated.

A writing test made this Risk Management major realise she needs to add to her vocabulary. The course book In Dialogue with Humanity included complicated words. She read a book written by Mitch Albom.

To prepare for DSE, this Engineering major forced himself to learn English on his own for the first time. He read an article about learning vocabulary in the university language centre.

Doing an Associate Degree helped this student develop a wider scope for learning English. She likes reading a news website where users comment on the content. She says there is a passive attitude towards using English.

Meeting a good tutorial teacher gave this Design student a chance to learn a lot about English. She read Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard.

An exchange to Mauritius let this Business major talk to participants from Brazil, the Netherlands and other countries in English every day. Reading thick reference books for a course was a bit boring.

A three-week English programme in an international school involved playing basketball, dodge ball and performing a drama. It is difficult for this Psychology major to understand some of the vocabulary used in his course.

A drama performance in secondary school required this Business major to memorise the script. Preparing for the DSE involved a massive amount of reading practice.

A visit to this Psychology major’s secondary school by foreign students highlighted his poor language skills. He had to read the articles and complete the exercises from the English Builder website every day.

After watching 127 Hours, this Nursing major wrote a review. She also read a philosophical book which she found while browsing in a shop.

Preparing for TOEFL, the Business major stayed in her room studying intensively for three months. Reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People made her realise she had made progress with English.

A private tutor taught pronunciation to this Social Work when he was in primary school. The Great Gatsby is deep and meaningful because the author explores a lot of hidden meanings.

Communicating with people from around the world during a trip to the UK gave this Criminology major a chance to practise her spoken English. She read The Carnival Ghost for the SBA but did not enjoy it. She prefers non-fiction text about topics she finds interesting.

Joining a study tour to Reading UK exposed this Accounting major to an English speaking environment and made her feel more comfortable using the language. She chose to read about Elvis Presley for the reading scheme at school because it was the thinnest book.

She doesn’t have many chances to use English for communication in daily life according to this Geography major. She reads journal articles.

Playing games to learn vocabulary made this Computer Science major realise that learning English can be fun. Study material for a philosophy course improved his reading skills.

Practising speaking with her classmates helped this History major get a level 4 in the DSE. After watching Sherlock Holmes on BBC, she tried to read the book but stopped after 8 pages.

Weekly writing assignment, grammar practice, and dictation for a tutorial class had left a terrible impression on this Interior Design major. It was hard to maintain the habit of reading a newspaper every morning.

Acting in a role-play taught this Accounting major how to communicate in different business and social situations. As an undergraduate, she learnt more about writing when she judged submissions in a secondary school writing competition.