Secondary school English ambassadors polish their language skills by testing other students and leading activities. Watching Pride and Prejudice led to reading the original Jane Austen book.

Participating in the Harvard Model Congress Asia in university enabled this Accounting major to speak with people who use English as their first language. She read a set of Ladybird books given by her aunt.

A student says an overseas exchange programme provided a better learning environment. The South China Morning Post and TIME magazine feed his interest in politics.

Preparing for university entrance exam meant studying English for two to three hours every day during high school. This Urban Planning major usually reads BBC News and the Economist in the morning.

Playing Scrabble is a good way for this Business major to learn new words while socialising. She read If I Stay after watching the movie.

Tutors who treated students like friends made English more interesting by using games and movies. Eat, Pray, Love was the first English novel this Education major read. She watched the movie instead after chapter one because it was too difficult. She uses a Kindle to read academic papers.

Learning through songs impressed this Engineering major because she could look at the lyrics in a different way. The book Charm’s Life is her favourite and she has read it many times in both English and Chinese.

Textbooks such as Look, Listen and Learn, Cambridge English and Go For It have helped this English major’s learning. Learning in high school was mostly for the university entrance exam.

Watching news reports helped improve this Information Engineering major’s listening skills. He read For One More Day but hasn’t finished it yet due to the many distractions around.

The first time this student found English movies comprehensible was when he was watching and reviewing one in secondary school. He finished CSI Miami on a plane to Paris and later looked up the words on Google Translate.

Along with learning grammar, this Dental student was taught how to compose sentences, paragraphs and essays. She became familiar with research papers and academic writing in university.

A Bible training camp gave this Sociology major the opportunity to interact with foreigners. She also practised spoken English during a service trip in Cambodia. She read part of The Five People You Meet in Heaven and P.S. I Love You.

Primary school classes with a NET were memorable for this Business major because he studied love song lyrics. His school reading involved clipping news articles.

English classes in secondary school involved watching movies for this Nursing major. She finds the notes from a tutorial class effective for English learning because of the colourful and organised design.

Movies were shown to this English graduate in Secondary 3. She feels they exposed her to everyday English. She learnt lots of idioms while reading with classmates in junior form.

Although she had to do a mountain of papers to prepare for the DSE, this Economics major relishes the fight. She can’t remember the titles of the books she read for the SBA but notes that they were thick.

Secondary education included tenses, grammar, reading, and writing. Speaking was more important in senior secondary and university. This Dentistry major also learnt vocabulary outside school.

As a waiter in a Japanese restaurant, this Public Administration major had to communicate with his customers in English. He thinks the course materials from his studies are too difficult.

If the story is good, then the language in which it is written is secondary according to this Public Administration major. To Kill a Mockingbird is a really good book.

Attending an EMI secondary school did not create an English-speaking environment for this student because the main language of communication between her and her classmates was Cantonese.

Joining a university programme called Cultural and Language Immersion allowed this Translation major to visit an English-speaking country.

Taking an English class during an exchange to Australia enabled this Architecture major to learn how the locals use the language. She expanded her vocabulary in high school by reading the South China Morning Post.

Being an exchange student at UCLA exposed this Language major to different accents and grammar. Her reading focuses on texts about how foreigners interpret Chinese literature.

Winning competitions can boost your confidence and encourage you to read more. Harry Potter and books by Dan Brown such as the Da Vinci Code are favourites.

Secondary education aimed at preparing this English major for exams. She likes watching movies and sitcoms, listening to music, reading blogs and literature, and travelling.

Exchanging letters with a penfriend from the UK improved this Civil Engineering major’s language skills. He felt that the vocabulary in the South China Morning Post, a compulsory reading material in secondary school was too difficult.

A music loving host family in the UK taught this Arts major English by explaining the lyrics in their favourite songs. She prefers Chinese books but felt she could better understand The Time Keeper when she read it in English.

Preparing for the DSE exams by working with poems and doing the SBA was memorable for this student. Chinese books are easier to read because she is familiar with the vocabulary.

English speaking days in primary and secondary school became more interesting for this student as they also included drama lessons with NETs. Reading is hard for her but she did a book report for the SBA.

Interacting with NETs in primary school was fun for this Economics major. She had to read newspapers and poems for examinations. She read The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.

A drama production in high school gave this Management major the opportunity to speak more English. She read the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for her English literature class.

Discussions on course readings enabled this Sociology major to communicate in English. She appreciates the opportunities to explore different writing styles of different time periods through the readings related to her major.

Participating in the Youth Summit placed this Translation major in an all-English environment and motivated her to improve. Reading the non-fiction book David and Goliath was different to reading fiction stories.

Extra-curricular tutorials in secondary school taught this Architecture major phonetics. The readings for her major are difficult because they relate to philosophy. She spends more time to digest the materials and uses the dictionary to overcome the challenge.

A tour where English was the lingua franca helped this student improve her speaking and writing skills. She has used English for academic purposes. She has read Once and Harry Potter. Watching the movies also helped.

A student communicated with Singaporeans during a senior high school travel programme. She says her teacher recommended some meaningful books to students.

English learning started at the age of 14. This English major studied in universities in Europe and the UK. He taught students English.

English was the lingua franca during design classes in Switzerland for this Architect. She used to read fiction but turned to books about Architecture in university.

Watching movies and discussing the plot, message and language used made English classes interactive for this Architecture major. The meaning behind Animal Farm and 1984 is inspiring.

The approaches that this BBA major has taken to self-study English have prepared him for assessment. He enriched his understanding of the language and believes delving deeper into the language would help bridge cultural gaps.