A student who is ‘crazy about rock music’ learnt more vocabulary while looking for the meaning of lyrics. She thinks the English version of Harry Potter is better than the Chinese translation.

A student says learning a language allows you to absorb a new culture. Reading materials such as Eat, Pray, Love and TIME magazine help improve her vocabulary.

A school visit to a university hotel helped build this student’s vocabulary. He read about Coco Chanel during the SBA. He’s an NBA fan and plays video games in English.

Attending an EMI school allowed this student to boost his vocabulary. He feels it is better to learn some science subjects in English. He read Harry Potter because the movie was not very impressive.

Listening to songs and writing down the lyrics helped this student build her vocabulary. She also enjoys reading English language horror stories because the complex language sometimes hides the gore.

A Chinese teaching major learnt English through drama during NET-led classes in secondary school. She read Harry Potter and is comfortable reading E-books, and using other online sources such as dictionaries and search engines for vocabulary building.

A working holiday in a relatives’ Chinese restaurant in Nottingham exposed this student to regional accents in the UK. She also learns unique vocabulary while playing rugby. She likes to watch a movie before reading a book.

A ‘cute’ university tutor enabled this student to remember grammar rules about clauses. She learnt a lot of new vocabulary while reading The Lord of the Rings. Her favourite author is Nicholas Sparks.

An exchange to Liverpool made this student more aware of her vocabulary and accent. She liked how the characters communicated in Fifty Shades of Grey.

A fun fair in primary school enabled this student to have more interaction in English through games. She prefers to read newspapers such as the SCMP as it allows her to learn new vocabulary.

Talking with foreign workmates from England and the US made this student more aware of listening and speaking skills. He took tutorials to improve his vocabulary for the A-level exams. [4CK054]  ...

Listening to RTHK’s English news about issues such as Occupy Central and making class presentations helped boost this student’s vocabulary. He likes reading books with movie tie-ins such as The Hunger Games. He also reads material related to marketing.

This student developed a system to remember the spelling of a word through pronunciation. She watched variety shows to increase her vocabulary and sense of the language.

Learning English in secondary focused on reading the South China Morning Post everyday and some English books. English days included games and watching some shows.

Drama and stories made learning English fun in primary school for this ECE major. Preparing for the DSE involved learning vocabulary and doing past papers. She reads Wikipedia.

Reading a phone manual allows a student to increase his vocabulary. He checks new words using Google. He learnt English effectively during secondary school.

Watching movies like the Day After Tomorrow helped this General Studies major’s vocabulary. He also uses English reference books for assignments.

Use rhyming words to write a poem in primary school was fun for this English Teaching major. She prefers to teach primary because it is hard to motivate older students for exams. She read the newspaper to boost her vocabulary for the DSE.

A Hong Kong-born student learnt vocabulary through games in primary school on the Mainland. She returned to Hong Kong in secondary school. She says Hong Kong schools treasure English.

Liberal Studies classes were an interesting way to learn more than grammar and vocabulary for this English Teaching major. She has read What If and says newspapers can broaden students’ thinking.

Reciting English vocabulary helped this student in the DSE and life in general. Reading is a hobby. He enjoys educational comics.

A kindergarten teacher used pictures to help this student build her vocabulary. She had a terrible reading experience and describes her skills as weak.

Learning languages in order to teach in other countries is this student’s motivation. She will go to a park and practise with foreigners. She reads to improve her vocabulary.

Extra-curricular classes with games and pictures interested this Chinese Language Teaching major in learning vocabulary. She has travelled to Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. She is trying to read Harry Potter and likes printed books.

A secondary school English teacher built-up this Health Education major’s vocabulary. He reads for research purposes. He uses English to learn more about sports such as basketball and football.

Songs and lyrics help this student build her vocabulary. She will read a book if the movie version is interesting. DSE students should immerse themselves in English activities.

Rewriting English newspaper articles helped this student improve her grammar and vocabulary in secondary school. She read a few pages of Harry Potter but found she spent a lot of time checking new words in the dictionary.

Word games in secondary school and during Associate Degree studies helped this student build her vocabulary. Also in secondary school, she read Oliver Twist and performed it as a drama.

Watching English language movies sparks this Psychology major’s interest in words. Her favourite is Harry Potter. Subject-specific textbooks have honed her understanding of vocabulary.

An Engineering major discovered he needed to broaden his subject-specific vocabulary after struggling to communicate while visiting family in Canada. He read a bilingual version of The Little Prince.

Volunteering as a teacher in Bangladesh exposed this Engineering major to other varieties of English. His secondary school teachers pushed him to read to improve his vocabulary.

A fresh grad, who works as a flight attendant, enrolled in an English course to improve her grammar skills. Research for her final year project involved reading academic papers with complex vocabulary.

Drama and games with new friends in university exposed this student to new vocabulary and culture. A textbook provided insight into how different cultures eat. He finds it difficult to listen to native speakers.

Memorising ‘tons’ of vocabulary provided by tutors during secondary school was important for this student’s English writing and reading. He enjoys news articles from The Economist and TIME.

Working in USA Disney put this student in touch with people from different backgrounds and was an alternative to learning English through studying. She reads English news to build her vocabulary and learn sentence structure.

Learning grammar and important vocabulary in tutorial classes were useful for this student’s DSE experience. He feels comfortable with his reading ability when using English textbooks at university.

University English lessons and subject-specific articles have helped this student develop the vocabulary of psychology. He has to read a lot of textbooks and one novel during the summer break.

Taking part in a speech festival made this student feel like he was learning from the new vocabulary and poems. He cannot remember the English classics he has read. He reads journal articles in university.

Role-playing with her cousins in English exposed this student to new vocabulary when she was little. She read a children’s book by Roald Dahl in early secondary school as she felt her English level was beneath that of general native-speaking kids.

Games were used in this student’s school to build vocabulary. She is interested in reading articles about public health which is her major.