HLS Newsletter September 2025

Hi, and welcome to the HLS website!

Over the last few months we have had some really enjoyable classes. Let's start with the Last-One-Standing Spelling Test.

Students were required to spell words of increasing length and difficulty as they made their way through rounds. Spell it correct, you stay in, spell it wrong and you're out. We had one or two intense battles along the way! Here are the winners from each class:

Next, we enjoyed our annual Merdeka class in August. Children talked about why they love Malaysia, and then had an activity to test whether they knew what is made in Malaysia and what is not. The food at the end of the class is always a big draw during both Merdeka and Halloween classes.

At HLS, we give our students plenty of opportunities to speak English. This is especially true during Presentations classes. Students prepare a presentation at home on a certain given topic, and then deliver their presentation in class. It presents a wonderful opportunity for public speaking practise and a chance to build confidence in speaking English.

Mr. Duncan enjoys creating new things which he can use in his classes. Over the years, he has been working on drawing a map. It ended up being 36 A4 pages in size! He pasted it to the classroom wall and prepared comprehension questions about it for the students to answer. This included giving directions, following instructions, and extracting information. Our students loved the map and were sad when it came down the following week!

For the first time at HLS, we held a Trading Class. Students brought an object from home that they were willing to trade. They had the chance to advertise their item to the class, then attempt to make a trade with someone else. We saw a lot of trades happen and there was a lot of fun all around!

We welcomed back some former students over the past few months who dropped in to visit and catch up with Mr. Duncan. These are always very special moments for us. We love our students and keep an interest in them after they leave our classes and continue with their studies and life.

Oscar and Hui Xin are legends of HLS, having spent several years in our classes. We are so thankful for their love and support of HLS, and for the deep friendship we enjoy

Falisya was our student for several years before she moved to boarding school. We miss her so much and it was a treat to see her again as she accompanied her sister Farra to class

Yan Chloe was a student of HLS many years ago when she was younger. She is now studying at college in KL but came back to visit during her semester break. So great to see her again! Beside her is her younger sister Vernice

We also said goodbye to Uzma & Attar who have been studying with us for the last few years. They are moving abroad with their family and we wish them all the best!

We also said goodbye to Ding Chok Onn and Ding Chok Han after many years attending HLS classes. This is their farewell speech!

That's a wrap for the HLS Newsletter for now. Thank you to all parents and students who are enrolled in our classes. We are grateful for your support and look forward to continuing to teach all of our students as we approach the last few months of 2025.

Completed English Course at PC MTBE, Petronas, Gebeng, Kuantan

Horne Learning Services completed a 14-class English course with lab staff of PC MTBE (Petronas Chemicals) at the plant in Gebeng, Kuantan in June 2014.

Mr. Duncan of Horne Learning Services during an English class at PC MTBE (Petronas Chemicals) at Gebeng, Kuantan

We would like to thank Petronas for the opportunity of expanding our business and teaching reach. We have enjoyed offering our services and expertise to the staff here and building their confidence in using the English language.

FIFA World Cup 2014 Comprehension Test

In conjunction with the start of the FIFA World Cup this week to be held in Brazil, we have formulated an English comprehension test featuring 14 questions on the history of the FIFA World Cup.

Here are the questions. Why don't you print it out and have a go for yourself. In addition to enhancing your English understanding and vocabulary, you will end up more knowledgeable about the history of the FIFA World Cup!

Who is your pick to lift the FIFA World Cup this year?

2014 Syllabus

We hope everyone enjoyed the New Year celebrations, wherever in the world you may be.

We are welcoming back students old and new to our classes, which are filling up quickly. Please be aware that Thursday afternoon is the only class remaining for children with available spaces.

During the Christmas and New Year holiday I've been busy preparing the new syllabus for 2014 at Horne Learning Services. A lot of the exercises which our students are accustomed to will remain, but there are some new additions too.

Once every 2 months (Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov) we will be conducting a variety of grammar exercises from The Word Bank, a more fun and flexible way of learning tense work, nouns, verbs and adjectives, synonyms and antonyms, word lists and making sentences.

During the same months we will be continuing Movie Week, essentially a listening test with comprehension questions, but doing so by watching a fun movie.

During the months of February, April, June, August and October there will be a Games Week where we'll be learning English in a fun way by making short stories as a class, doing word searches, and other games.

A new addition for 2014 is Exam Week. There will be five Exam Weeks, held on the 4th week on the same months as Games Week (mentioned just above). Exams will involve vocabulary, speaking, reading, writing and grammar exercises. Results will be recorded and passed to parents. (Exam Week will only be for students who are capable of reading and writing and who can understand and answer grammar questions. Those of a lower standard will continue with simple exercises)

Activities including speaking, creative writing, reading and word games will remain on the syllabus. We are confident our students will enjoy the variety of exercises, a  more fun way of learning, as well as being more accountable to their parents through exams every two months.

When students interview their teacher

Last week I gave my English students the luxury of preparing questions they would like to ask me in a one-on-one personal interview.

This was designed as a means to explore students creativity, writing, reading and speaking skills. It was also intended to give them a confidence boost.

As it turns out, they didn't really need that lift in confidence, as I answered a whole range of questions from silly, to obvious, to hilarious!

Here I'll share with you some of the more notable questions I was asked, and by whom, along with the answers I gave:

To kick off the analysis of the interviews with Mr. Duncan, I want to share this question asked by a young Shuen Lin: 

"Do you like to speak English?"

My response was a "yes" since English is the only language I can indeed speak! I have no option but to like it!

Another similar question with an obvious answer came from Marcus:

"Do you have a toilet in your house?"

I sure do, Marcus. My students, particularly the younger ones, use it often!

Meanwhile, Seng Fong asked me the criminal question, 

"Which daughter is your favourite?"

As you can imagine, this question is impossible to answer other than "I love them both equally."

Kghartie seemed to be giving me a general knowledge test with these two questions:

"Is Pluto a planet?" and 

"Where is the world's driest and hottest deserts located?"

I answered him that Pluto is not a planet, but used to be. Now it's just one of many thousands of similar 'rocks' floating around in that region of space.

Regarding the deserts question, I honestly didn't know, so we did a quick Google search to discover that the Atacama desert in Chile is the world's driest, as it gets just 4 inches of rain in a thousand years while the Lut desert in Iran is the hottest in the world with a recorded temperature of 70.7C!

Mastermind quiz over, here are some more funny questions:

Adam and Brandon wanted to know, (and I'm not sure why!):

"What is your favourite underwear?" and

"What colour is your underwear?"

For those who are interested, I answered 'Superman' and 'white' respectively!

Xiang Qiao: "How many fingers do you have?"

Me: "Is that a trick question? I have 8 fingers, and 2 thumbs!"

Cindy: "What is the thing you like the most about Malaysia?"

Me: "Good weather, good food and good people."

Cassy: "What present did you give to your wife on her birthday this year?"

Me: "An ipad mini."

Muiz: "What is your favourite sport besides football and tennis?" (He knows my sporting preferences well!)

Me: "Formula 1 racing."

Xiang Meng: "Why do you love Man. Utd?"

Me: "They were the first team I ever saw play football way back when I was in primary school. Oh yeah, they are the best too!"

Ser Han: "What is your ambition?"

Me: "To be a famous English teacher."

Jen Yee: "Why did you come here?"

Me: "Because I fell in love with Fidelia!"

Sheng Wey: "What cartoon do you like to watch?"

Me: "Special Agent Oso."

Shafiqah: "Who is the person who inspired you?"

This question made me think. A lot. Eventually I answered "my mum."

Kelly: "What do you think of your Wednesday adult class?" (Kelly belongs in that very class!)

Me: "It's a good class, lots of fun, but they also do all the work I present to them."

Pui Wan: "Where did you get the idea to name your daughters Lauren and Leah?"

Me: "There was a nice girl at my high school called Lauren. She seemed to be different to everyone else and had straight, black hair. I very quietly admired her though I never spoke to her. But I remembered her name. With Leah, we wanted it to begin with "L" like Lauren, and we experimented with many different names. We just liked Leah the best."

To finish off this post, here is a selection of the more amusing questions:

Marilyn: "Why did you marry your wife?"

Let me think . . . you know what? I fell in love with her!

Yu Chen: "How do you prank your hometown friends?"

I mentioned the story of camping with a large group of friends. We went into someone else's tent at 3am and put toothpaste on this boy's eyebrows while he was asleep. It was a killer to get off in the morning!

Irfan: "What are you talking about?"

Well, I had to laugh at that question. I told him I was trying to answer his questions!

Ye Hao: "Do you like Barbie dolls?"

Me: "No." But I probably should have said 'yes' as I play Barbie dolls with Lauren from time to time!

Kelly: "What is your average monthly income?"

Me: "That's confidential!"

Theresa: "Why do you cut your hair?"

Me: "To keep myself cool, and light, and it's easier to maintain."

Sook Chia: "How many girlfriends did you have in college?"

This answer actually included 2 girlfriends in primary school and 3 in secondary school (though two of them lasted no longer than a couple of weeks). So I answered '5, and not at the same time!'

So that wraps up my students interviews. If you don't see your name or your child's name in this post, it probably means you or your child asked me very good and proper interview questions. Not too crazy, not too funny, not too obvious. But hey, I enjoyed answering every single one of them!

Congratulations to my students for successfully participating in a very good exercise!

T is for Think in English

(During the month of April we are participating in an A-Z challenge hosted by Arlee)

We'd love your support by 'like'-ing us on facebook. Just click here: 

HLS English Classes Kuantan

Key Point #1 is "Think in English."

I have found through teaching English in Malaysia for 7 years that it is much more effective to train students to 'think in English' rather than having them thinking and speaking in another language and then translating it to English.

I demand all of my students regardless of age or English proficiency, to speak in English during our classes. It's difficult at first but it really trains them to 'think in English.'

Think in Chinese, Speak in Chinese

Think in English, Speak in English

Has anybody else come across such translation problems between languages?

M is for Make an effort!

(During the month of April we are participating in an A-Z challenge hosted by Arlee)

We'd love your support by 'like'-ing us on facebook. Just click here: 

HLS English Classes Kuantan

I love nothing better than to see a student join my class who has a deep desire to learn, improve and be committed to the lessons. They arrive on time, come prepared, listen attentively, contribute to the lesson and have plenty of questions to ask me.

Our key point #5 states that a 'Balanced Effort' is required to increase proficiency in the English language. That involves reading, writing, listening and speaking. We weave all 4 elements into our English classes.

Which element of English do you struggle the most with? Which do you enjoy the most?

I is for International class

(During the month of April we are participating in an A-Z challenge hosted by Arlee)

We'd love your support by 'like'-ing us on facebook. Just click here: 

HLS English Classes Kuantan

We were thrilled to meet up with some people from Russia when they came here for a holiday. It was lovely teaching them English every day. Now they are back home in Russia, one of them has become our international student.

We teach one of our friends from Russia via Skype every Saturday. It's been an interesting experience teaching English by a video call. Of course, the method of teaching is different to the usual classroom lessons, but it is also enjoyable.

How do you keep in touch with international friends?

One year on . . .

Horne Learning Services was officially formed in February 2012. It came after deciding to make a proper business out of Mr. Duncan's English skills, and a lot of hard work to make it happen.

Forming the company, writing and submitting a formal offer letter and invitation to work letter, gaining a long-term visit pass and receiving permission to work from immigration were all stepping stones to settling down and getting to work with Horne Learning Services.

One year on, we couldn't have imagined the number of people who have contacted us to learn English here! We have opened more classes, filled them up, had 4 successful English Workshops at Vistana Hotel Kuantan, and started 2 adult classes per week. We have also enjoyed teaching English to the staff of Vistana Hotel during 2012, whilst creating 100% our own syllabus.

We're really thankful to our students and their parents for putting their faith in Horne Learning Services, and look forward to many more successes and improvements to come in the future!

Learning English through movies - Mirror Mirror

Welcome to Horne Learning Services and our blog post for today!

I do hope you are enjoying life and being successful.

Today I'm going to talk about learning English through listening.

Most people who want to learn or improve on their English, always demand speaking classes, or say "I just want to speak!" But English is about a lot more than just speaking.

"Speaking's" best friend is called "listening", and if they don't go together, "speaking" just isn't the same!

Listening is an important exercise in mastering the English language. And that doesn't mean a class of students should have to listen to each other's imperfect English while the teacher sits down and lets them get on with it. That is not the ideal listening exercise.

Students need to listen to correct English, from somebody who can speak English perfectly, which in most cases, should be the teacher. The exposure to listening to correct English is a big advantage for English students to have.

Fortunately for me and my students, I'm from England, and English is my natural language, it hasn't been learned like other languages had to be.

As such, I try to talk to my students a lot, give them instructions to see if they have listened well and follow them. I will not speak in any other language but English, to them. Very soon, they get comfortable with English and their listening improves.

I record myself speaking and give them listening tests with questions to answer. Best of all, I watch English movies with my students, young and old!

This week we are watching the movie, "Mirror Mirror", based on the story of Snow White, but told from the point of view of the evil queen. I've prepared 20 questions for students to answer by watching the movie and listening very carefully.

Students will not understand every single word that is spoken, and at times it may seem that people in the movie are speaking very quickly, and students may feel that they are losing pace from time to time.

It is however, a great opportunity for students to practice listening, look out for key words and answers, and develop an understanding of how the English language works. Learning new words to add to their vocabulary is another privilege.

But it's the exposure to listening to correct English which is the overriding benefit here.

Adult Classes

Adult classes are up and running at Horne Learning services. Classes for adults are currently being held on Wednesday nights (both at Vistana Hotel and in residence), Thursday mornings in residence and Thursday nights in residence.

Adults will have the opportunity to practice speaking in English, listening to me speak English to them, write sentences, read short stories, have discussion and begin writing a daily diary.

They are also encouraged to keep learning English every day by choosing something new to try out each day, whether that be reading a book or newspaper or magazine, listening to the radio, speaking English with a friend for 5 or 10 minutes each day, or any other thing which could improve their English.

English Workshop 1st September, 2012

Our 3rd English Workshop of the year was a success and was attended by 32 children over 3 sessions. Vistana Hotel provided the setting for us, with a nice Function Room and some good refreshments.

The agenda for the Workshop included:

• Ice-breaking
• Pictionary
• Boggle
• Speech
• Listening Test
• Treasure Hunt

The children really enjoyed themselves. This time we gave everyone individual points for how well they performed on each task. 

At the end of each Workshop the points were totalled and a winner declared. So here are the three winners:

9am session winner: Karthik

1pm session winner: Jia Qi

4.30pm session winner: Ken Foong

Congratulations to our three winners who scored the most points in word games, writing, listening and speaking exercises!

Here are some photo highlights of each session of the English Workshop:

9AM SESSION

And here are the treasure hunt winners!

2nd place:

3rd place:

4th place:

9am session group photo:

1PM SESSION

Speaking topic - "If I could go to the moon, I would . . . . ."

Speaking topic - "If I was the Vistana Hotel manager, I would . . . ."

1pm session treasure hunt winners:

2nd place:

1pm session group photo:

4.30PM SESSION

Treasure hunt winners:

2nd place:

4.30pm session group photo:

Thanks to all of the children who attended this English Workshop, and for their parents who support us in this event.

The final English Workshop of the year will be held some time in November, 2012.