Govt Subsidised Cantonese Classes

[Crankshaft]

Mr William is the only guy to avoid... He uses own random system for marking tones, which doesn't map to normal 6 cantonese tones. So you never have a chance to get the tones right with him.
Did you try other teachers?

No I only did the 50 beginner hours with William. He only used 4 tones, which I thought might be better suited to beginners as it's already so difficult to learn. Plus some tones are very similar and once u have some context in a sentence then it felt like the tones become less important? Or maybe I just didn't pay enough attention.

[greenlover1991]

Mr William is the only guy to avoid... He uses own random system for marking tones, which doesn't map to normal 6 cantonese tones. So you never have a chance to get the tones right with him.
Did you try other teachers?

Random: I live next door (technically, tower) to William

took all of the 3 levels under William (~2016-2018). Yes he does have his own "arrow" system to mark the tones, but I think it simplifies the learning. And his examples are more practical and conversational. Though can't compare with other teachers. We even went to a couple of school trips (Wong Tai Sin, local vegetarian resto, Ping Shan heritage trail in Yuen Long, 10k Buddha Monastery in Sha Tin). Would retake the classes if only I didn't live so far from Wan Chai. Cheapest lessons on earth ever.

[GotIt]

He’s definitely very social guy but for teaching is worst of all in the HOPE centre (I’ve studied with 4 including him).
His “own” system leaves students clueless of the actual tones, especially when he writes his marks and they’re wrong even according to his system…

[GotIt]

I gave up on trying to get anything useful from his tonal system, when checked my records and seen examples of tone 4 as arrow up, tone 5 as arrow down, and tone 6 randomly either up or down. I guess for people with not very high standard for teaching, that are looking to have few laughs and remember literally dozen of words plus after class socialising that’s about right. But if you really interested to get accurate knowledge avoid him at all cost. You’re not the first people so fond of William, there’re more in his class. Common feature is that these people don’t know many words and are inaccurate with the tones as much as possible, and never attended classes with other teachers…

[Gollygordon]

I did 50 hours with William.

Felt I learned a reasonable amount, understood some basics when Cantonese friends were chatting amongst themselves and was understood when speaking.

He may well not be the best teacher out there (I have no metric to measure by), but found him brilliant regardless and his course very much worth doing.

[emx]

Just don't miss too many classes or they will boot you out of the subsidised classes.

[Crankshaft]

Just don't miss too many classes or they will boot you out of the subsidised classes.

Yes, don't waste the resources!

Apparently there are a lot of people who just never show up at all because it was so cheap and they changed their mind or are just plain lazy. William said he once had a class on their first lesson and no one showed up. Our class got smaller as time went by.

Don't be that guy.