Background: I'm currently taking Basic 3 classes at ezSAM Korean Language Centre, which I'm enjoying a lot! I've done Basic 1 &2 at ezSAM and am halfway through basic 3 now.
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First off, a pic of the interior! I really loved this picture of the textbooks with the early morning sun shining into the classroom. That's my sogang 1a workbook and textbook on the first day of class haha.
Teachers: My teacher is really patient and nice! She's good at explaining grammar points, the light and bright sounds of the vowels and so forth. As Ezsam uses the Sogang books til level 3 (then changes to Yonsei, but I haven't experienced classes with the Yonsei books yet), the classes include a lot of conversation where we practice the dialogues with our partners, and the teacher will go around and ask us questions too :) She sometimes randomly quizzes us on stuff we learnt in previous lessons e.g the days of the week, the counting systems etc.
Materials: A big plus for this one! They have their own ppts which are really well designed and thought out. They also have handouts for each class which neatly summarise the grammar points and with spaces for us to practice writing the new words.
Textbooks: Sogang 1a for Basic 1-3, 1B for Basic 4-5
Location: The location is really central, in the heart of Orchard Road.
Costs: It cost me $225 in total for my Basic 1 class, breakdown is as follows:
- $170 for 6 classes (2 hours each class so 12 hrs total = $14/hr)
- $10 for registration
- $45 for Sogang 1A workbook + textbook + attached grammar book
Overall experience: Overall I enjoy the classes, learning a new language is a good break from work/ studying, and the bright environment of the classrooms as well as the Saturday morning sunshine feeling always makes me feel happy when going for classes hahaha. They have quite a good balance between reading/ writing/ listening/ speaking. I also really love the Sogang books which they use :) There are probably about 8-9 of us in the Basic 3 class, so it's not too crowded and the teacher can give you individual attention if needed. At the Basic 1 stage there was a few basic classes per week so there was make up lessons available but now for Basic 3 there's only 1 class running at a time so we usually just go earlier for makeup lessons prior to class if we miss any classes.
