Tom Lee

After two years of taking class with Tom I can confidently say that my lessons with him have been the #1 thing that has contributed to my growth in Korean. Not only have my speaking and listening skills improved exponentially, but my depth of understanding of all the nuance in the Korean language (and there is a lot lol) has dramatically increased as well. This for me is super valuable and really not something you can learn from a book!

Honestly I can say that after taking many many many lessons with Tom DAILY, this is probably one of the best teachers I’ve ever had in my life — period!! I cannot recommend him enough, he is so kind, compassionate punctual. He makes learning so fun and I can genuinely say that it has been a pleasure to be his student. His teaching method for learning languages is by far one of the most practical and hands on approaches. I never thought I would have learnt the amount I learned. And I never even did any of the homework 😂. He paces his lessons to suit his students. He takes so much notes during lessons. The study material is always centred around your life so you really learn vocabulary you would use in real life. I can’t recommend him enough.

Some people are just born to teach. Tom has a gift for sure. Tom offers a perfect balance of instruction, patience, encouragement, and humor.  -He uses both Korean and English in class -he types notes for you as you go -homework easily fits into busy schedules -you learn so much without realizing it -He can easily sense when you don't understand and may need additional examples -He can also sense when you are having an off-day and need less pressure. -classes are a joy and will quickly become the highlight of your week.   I am thankful I put the self-teaching attempts down and took a chance. Learning a language is hard. Having someone to walk beside you that genuinely cares about your success makes it easier.

awesome focus on vocabulary and differences in speaking forms versus written/plain/diary forms. Tom makes it so easy to understand when he creates his tables and maps it out. My books tend to use a lot of written/diary form endings that sometimes do not make sense. Once he explains with examples, it is so much clearer. I can use his notes as a reference when I see it again and I can figure out the grammar myself. :-)

I was a bit out of practice since it has been two weeks since my last lesson but Tom got me up to speed with lots of Korean conversation. I really like that he is explaining most everything in Korean. He also writes everything down so if I can't translate it I can read it and then I say it back to him in English for verification. I really love our free talk in the first half of the lesson. As we go through my vocabulary and questions, he always adds more interesting info (origin of word and synonyms or similar words). This is where I learn extra vocabulary. My spelling mistakes also turn into great mini-lessons!

Second lesson here, Tom is good at encouraging me to continue learning, which is reassuring when I don't have enough confidence.