“A bridge between cultures, beliefs, people and their necessity of coexisting can only be built by language.”

To experience the profundity ingrained within languages wouldn’t be anything short of possessing the ability to expand our understanding of the many worlds beyond borders.

We believe there has to be a certain emphasis asserted on the feeling of belonging and unity that a language can create, as well as on the sense of achieving effective communication in crucially necessary times.

To innately develop into an eloquent multilingual individual, exposure to certain language(s) has to be considerably extensive. This necessity of exposure is efficiently catered to by certain institutes and schools that focus on delivering significant language training.

We at The Knowledge Review, in our endeavor to seek and exhibit The 10 Most Valuable Language Schools in East Asia, 2019, have come across a list of such language training institutes which redefine the way how language is taught and learned.

Featuring as the cover story of this edition is Q Language Ltd., a popular choice among overseas students, delivering them with learning opportunities in English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean languages.

Established in1999, Q Language has evolved with the demands of the modern language student and over the years, the institute has adapted its services to ensure students from every continent can study in a vibrant and exciting environment.

Q Language takes pride in showcasing its dedicated team of professional native-speaker teachers of English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean; a management team with extensive experience in language learning industry from UK, USA, Hong Kong, Korea & Taiwan; friendly Student Services staff to look after the needs of every student.

The institute also provides, housing service for students including personal airport meet and greet service for new arrivals; a legal team that provides expert processing of student visa applications at no cost; flexible programs to suit students’ schedule, ability or budget; multi-national classes with students from over 30 different countries with maximum admission of 8 students per class; and modern dedication premises in Central, Hong Kong Island location in prime position to access transportation, shopping areas, entertainment and business districts within walking distance.

Delivering Expertise

Q Language has successfully established itself as the go-to-place for overseas adult students wishing to travel to Asia for short or long-term language improvement. The institute’s key to success is providing much more than just language courses.

Its services also cover housing, local excursions, visa service, travel arrangements, medical assistance and even shopping advice. This whole approach keeps the institute in a unique place among Asia’s other education providers.

A distinguishing mark of Q Language is its resolute drive to seek and deliver value wherever and however necessary. The institute endeavors to cut through the tireless pursuit of offering more than just language classes.

Q Language’s most popular courses include Intensive English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, wherein, 15 hours or 24 hours of GROUP classes are offered from Monday to Friday with the option given to exchange any 3 hours of GROUP for 1 hour of PRIVATE 1:1 with flexible schedule and no extra fee payable.

Corporate Training in business language skills is also provided to company staff in Hong Kong, Macau and China, the key features of which include, class levels from absolute beginner to near-native speaker ability; and detailed pre-course, mid-course and post-course assessment to look after the students’ comprehensive progress.

The institute is also registered and recognized as a prime provider of full-time education (EDB571172).

Steering towards Zeniths

Q Language’s overall team approach is to ensure students exit with the confidence and ability to move on to the next stage of their academic or professional lives. The institute’s success has been in working with students on a long-term basis, providing linguistic and cultural needs.

Part of its achievement comes from the in-depth knowledge and dedication its team of staff proffers all students no matter their age, gender, beliefs or nationality. The team at Q Language which continuously drives the institute’s progress and unceasing growth includes:

Stuart McCutcheon Barrett, the School Director and Co-founder, who has personally dealt with immigration, lawyers, universities, employers, family members, banks, real-estate agents all with the sole objective to see the student succeed in each personal or professional quest. As a business graduate and career language education specialist, Stuart boasts the skill of finding a solution to every challenge put in his path.

“Our ability to flow with the ever-changing demands of educators has kept us at the top of our game,” Stuart expresses.

Elizabeth Oong, the Center Manager, works tirelessly to ensure students are given the best schedule to match their demands and ability. With her language ability in 4 languages and attention to detail, Elizabeth can adapt and create a positive result every, time and has proved this constantly in her 10 years of service at Q Language.

Eddie Park, the Head Of Teaching, oversees a team of over 30 staff to ensure all are able to deliver the same high quality programs time and time again. His door has always been open to discuss any student or teacher needs since 2005.

When asked about their perception over the advancement of automation and its effects over the education sector, the team at Q Language is of the opinion that “in this world of continual changes in language learning, we do try to incorporate technology if it is felt to be beneficial in goal achievement. Ultimately, language acquisition is still a human-based skill and any automation will be utilized as an aid not replacement of face-to-face education. We assess each new advancement in our industry with the same approach to core business and lesson materials. If it can improve our service and the student results, it can only be a positive.”

The team accepts that the challenges are often overwhelming in the education sector with constant release of new products. However, its underlying approach is not to take the onus from the language provider and defer to a product. In this respect, Q Language keeps students aware of the useful changes in the chosen language and provides open-minded advice based on the whole needs of each student.

Students are also encouraged to participate in the numerous extra-curricular activities offered at Q Language. The institute believes that cross-cultural integration can only enhance and enlighten students, and is completely achievable for the institute having students from over 30 countries and staff from another 10 countries.

Footprints of Excellence

Q Language has seen 5 students in the last 3 years been given full-scholarships at local universities after attending its full-time studies. These students have been from South America, Europe and Korea.

In addition, the institute has achieved a university entrance success rates exceeding 90% for those applicants asking it to assist in their preparation. Moreover, it personally found employment for 15 Q Language students in the last 12 months alone.

These achievements were not part of the institute’s regular service, but an extra mile which it went for these students to ensure their time with Q Language will also be a key part of their holistic development.

Exhibiting Distinction

“I came to Hong Kong because I love this city and I think there are good opportunities for doing business in the future, so I decided to study Chinese because it will be very useful. I’ve been studying Intensive Mandarin at Q Language for 2 years and I can now speak Chinese. It’s very comfortable to live here in Hong Kong because it’s a very international city and I can meet people from many different countries. I can speak in English here and I can practise my Chinese also, so it’s very convenient to live here. Later I want to study Business Chinese, which is a little more difficult – but anything is possible.”

– Anna from Russia, Intensive Mandarin Chinese Course.

“I really love this city and decided to live here for some time and improve my English also. I really enjoy the classes. I’ve had four teachers; three for group classes and one teacher for private classes when I was preparing for my IELTS exam. I think that my English is much better now and I passed the IELTS exam with a grade 7 – so I’m satisfied with the result. The groups are quite small and I love the atmosphere here. It’s quite international so you can hear the different ways of speaking English. I think it helps because when you go outside; you talk to people and everybody speaks differently. The school helped me to get a visa, and accommodation. I think the best thing here (in Hong Kong) is that you are in the city but you can spend one hour on the bus and you can be in the forest with great beaches, so it’s amazing. And if you are tired of the city, you can go somewhere and be in the forest and national parks; they are very beautiful here.” – Yulia from Belarus, Intensive English Course

“This place is fantastic! I chose Q Language because of its central location, and its services that go far beyond teaching. The staff helped me with my visa, housing and exam preparation for the HSK Mandarin exam. What I like most about the classes here is that they are small and personal – so everybody is encouraged to participate. I can only thank the staff for their constant support.”

– Bernhard G from Germany, Intensive Mandarin Chinese Course.

In Foresight

The biggest challenge for Q Language in the next few years is to retain its personalized service whist building its physical size. The next step for the institute is to expand the current premises to have more classroom space for the increasing enrollment numbers. The institute also understands that this will also mean extra staffing to handle the new intake and is prepping for the same.

Another aspect for Q Language is to enhance its services online. Many students have shown interest in continuing their learning with the institute remotely and it plans to dedicate teachers and resources to move more into this area as soon as technology becomes more reliable and effective.