Alice Han

I want to inspire

Alice Han is on a mission to dispel a long-held myth that learning to speak and read Chinese is hard work.

“Learning Chinese is not hard at all,” she says.

In fact, it is outdated education tools and a lack of innovation that has perpetuated this belief. But Han, who founded Nihao Language Education in 2014, is turning that idea on its head.

After graduating with a Masters in Teaching Chinese as an International Language, Han bounced around various language and training centers, but found their methods were not working.

“I found teaching methods and materials were not innovative. So in 2014, I started my own center.”

“I wanted to inspire people to learn Chinese and make the learning journey effective while having as much fun as possible. Our course is based on pragmatism. With building block methods, we read Chinese using illustrated Chinese characters and tailor-made storybooks. ”

Since 2014, Nihao Language Education has gone on to expand into the corporate world, training the likes of teams from SUEZ, HSBC and Adidas. But she admits it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. “The difficult thing at the beginning was finding experienced and passionate teachers. Some enthusiastic teachers couldn’t stay long in the industry and some experienced teachers were not innovative enough.” But persistence and a commitment to innovate, have proved a successful ingredient in Hong Kong’s competitive language market.