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Apart from being the leader in the provision of Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese and Korean language courses to adult learners in Hong Kong, HKU SPACE also offers short courses in other European and Asian languages such as Russian, Greek, Portuguese, Polish, Latin, Arabic, Turkish and Thai.
In addition to courses open to the general public, we also have extensive experience in providing customized training courses in the above-mentioned languages, as well as languages of ethnic minorities such as Hindi, Punjabi, Nepali, Urdu, Indonesian and Vietnamese, for private and public organizations in Hong Kong. The services we provide in language training include analysing language learners’ proficiency levels and workplace needs, customising training materials to meet workplace demands, and offering advice to encourage language development both in and beyond the training classroom.
This programme is geared towards entrepreneurs and employees in the business sector, with a specific focus on practical application of Islamic business etiquette.
The programme aims to introduce students to the basic characteristics of the Islamic economic system and enable students to understand some work- or business-related concepts in Arabic. Besides, students will be familiarised with general Islamic business etiquette. Furthermore, students will also raise their awareness of cultural differences between China and Middle East countries through different case studies.
On completion of the programme, students should be able to:
elaborate on at least 5 characteristics of Islamic economic system;
explain some Arabic work- or business-related concepts clearly;
identify the dos and don’ts in business with Arab countries and apply them in their analysis or even business operation;
analyse the cultural differences between China and Middle East countries.
The programme aims to introduce students to the basic elements of Arab culture and role of Islam in Middle East countries and enable students to grasp the very basics of the Arabic language including greetings and self-introduction, yet excluding the writing system. Besides, some core values and ethical concepts of Islam will be clarified, and students can raise their awareness of cultural differences between America/ western countries and Middle East countries in communication patterns.
Students are provided with brief geographical and historical background information of the Arab world, where the cultural varieties and regional differences are also touched upon. Through discussions and case studies, students will explore Islam, not only as a religion, but also as a way of life with reference to background information given at the beginning of the programme. Common misconception and stereotyping will also be highlighted with different perspectives considered. A site visit to the Kowloon Mosque will be organised to consolidate students’ learning.
This course is designed to cater for complete beginners of the Turkish language. The course will offer students a first taste of Turkish, with a focus on oral communication, basic grammar and the alphabet. The students will practice the language in an interactive class environment, whilst at the same time learning a little about the culture of Turkey and its habitants. The course is not exam-based.
This course continues on from our series Beginners' Arabic 1, 2, 3 and 4 courses. It is designed for students who already possess a basic knowledge of modern standard Arabic (written and spoken) and wish to continue their learning. Students will learn more aspects of Arab culture and will practice the four skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing. They will study superlatives and comparatives, vocabulary related to the weather and the conditional tense with different verb patterns. There will be a relaxed and supportive learning environment and the course is not exam-based.
This course continues on from our series Beginners' Arabic and Intermediate’s Arabic 1. It is designed for students who already possess a basic knowledge of modern standard Arabic (written and spoken) and wish to continue their learning. Students will learn more aspects of Arab culture and will practice the four skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing. They will study the future tense and its negation, verb-subject agreement, accusative nouns, sentence complements "Inna" and "Anna", negation in past tense with "Lam", jussive and subjunctive verbs and roots and patterns. In addition, they will have a lot of practice with listening, conversation, and essay writing. There will be a relaxed and supportive learning environment and the course is not exam-based.
This real-time online course is designed to cater for complete beginners of Finnish. The course will offer students a first taste of the language, focusing on oral communication, basic grammar and lexicon. The students will practise the language in an interactive way, whilst at the same time learning a little about the culture of Finland and its habitants. The course is not exam-based.
Why Finnish?
Finnish is one of the official languages of Finland as well as the European Union;
This Uralic language can broaden your horizon and bring you a new world perspective;
Finnish is easier than many other European languages with its gender neutrality, absence of future tense and straightforward pronunciation system;
Finland has been the happiest country in the world since 2018, according to the World Happiness Reports;
Finland features one of the best higher education systems in the world with nine universities ranking among the top 3%;
Strong prominence around the world with different famous brands in various fields such as electronics and design.
This course is designed to cater for complete beginners of the Hebrew language, corresponding to the initial stage of the level “Aleph” (A1). The course will offer students a first taste of Hebrew, focusing on oral communication, basic grammar and lexicon. The students will practise the language in an interactive class environment, whilst at the same time learning a little about Israeli and Jewish culture. The course is not exam-based.
Why Hebrew?
Modern Hebrew is the language of Israel, one of the world’s fastest-growing high-tech economies;
Hebrew gives you firsthand access to early Jewish thoughts and literature, which play an influential role in history;
Learning Hebrew can deepen your understanding of the Old Testament and Christianity, which is the most widely practiced religion in the world;
Hebrew is to a large extent a phonetic language mostly based on a simple three-letter root system which can help you learn the word formation more easily.
This course continues on from Beginners’ Arabic 3. It is designed for students who already possess a basic knowledge of modern standard Arabic (written and spoken) and wish to continue their learning. Students will continue to learn more aspects of Arab culture, vocabulary related to expressions of feelings, superlatives and comparatives, the past tense with different verb patterns, the ordinal numbers, expression for telling the time, etc. There will be a relaxed and supportive learning environment and the course is not exam-based.
This is an opportunity for advanced users of Portuguese to develop their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. The course design is based on a textbook, which is supplemented with authentic materials in teaching where appropriate, such as magazine and newspaper articles, films, TV and literature. The main focus is oral communication with practice in small groups. The medium of instruction is Portuguese.