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Students from Asia Pacific Language Centre (APLC) came together to deliver an interesting array of visual, aural and visceral performances at the APLC Arts Fest recently. It was a great avenue for students to display their magnificent talents in the performing arts, in which they displayed their own distinct individuality and creativity through a wide variety of performances ranging from traditional to modern arts, such as dancing, singing, painting, calligraphy and magic trick performances.

Prizes were awarded to the winners for the talent competition, as well as the Most Unique, Most Talented, Most Confident, Most Popular and Best Dressed participants. It was a great experience for the students as it gives them the opportunity to showcase their talents and build their confidence. The success of this event was made possible through good teamwork amongst the teachers. It is with high hopes that this event will always be cherished as a beautiful memory besides other numerous unforgettable memories created from all the events organized by the APLC family.

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As part of our July Summer Camp, the Asia Pacific Language Centre (APLC) conducted an interactive workshop for the Summer Camp 2017 students at the APU campus. The workshop was conducted over and above the Intensive English Programme the students were attending. 

The objective of the workshop was to give the students an opportunity to express themselves in the English language in an unintimidating, non-exam environment. Several activities were carried out for the students according to their levels of proficiency, such as Role-Play, Fluency through Practice, Public Speaking and Debate is Fun. 

We are glad to share that the students responded well to the activities. They overcame their shyness, gained confidence to speak and mixed well with students from different nations, like Bahrain, Korea, Japan, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Laos. Teachers, meanwhile, reported that there was much enthusiasm and interaction among the students. This was gathered from students who approached the teachers to express their delight in being involved in such fun and encouraging activities. 

The Summer Camp workshop has indeed fulfilled its objectives and was a success!

In the effort to encourage students to showcase their talents in performing arts, Asia Pacific Language Centre (APLC) hosted the second APLC Talent Show, themed APLC “Shine Like A Superstar” recently.

The talent show, which was a much awaited event showcased some truly hidden talents among APLC students who are here to better their English language skills. The event was coordinated by Ms. Haryati How, and executed by all the teachers at APLC. The students, who are always ready to share their talent and culture, were thrilled to demonstrate their ability to sing, dance and even perform magic tricks! 

The judges for the day were Ms. Sharen Kaur (APLC), Mr. Jerry Chong (APU), and Ms. Aida Zamnah (APU), all who have vast experience in training students for performing arts. There were eight performances altogether, individual and group, by students from various countries like Yemen, Kazakhstan, China and Libya. The students took the chance to perform songs from their homeland as well as traditional and folk dances from their countries. It was a colorful event filled with enthusiastic cheers from the audience. 

Based on the judges’ evaluation, Zhang Xue May from China won the 3rd place for her beautiful rendition of a Chinese song. Mohd Ali, Abdul Wahab, Ahmad Khaled, Al Hussein, Fadhl and Anmar Alelwani from Yemen bagged the 2nd place for a rousing traditional Mecca dance. Wang Xing Bo and Jia Wei from China who performed a truly heart-touching duet were crowned the champions for the day. There were consolation prizes for the other contestants who had all worked hard at polishing their performances to give out their best for the event. In addition, as a surprise for the audience, one Best Dressed winner was announced at the end. The prize for the Best Dressed Audience went to Hubah from Djibouti for her effort to look more stylish on that day.

At the end of the day, APLC is happy to be a platform where students can shine and be superstars too. It’s a great way for them to share the tradition and customs of their country with their friends from all around the world. 

Students and staff from the APIIT Education Group took a break from their studies and work to indulge in the tastes of the world as the Asia Pacific Language Centre (APLC) hosted its 6th International Food Festival at its premises recently. 

The event saw active participation of students from over 20 nationalities; they prepared signature foods of their countries and served them at the event’s booths, while explaining to incoming visitors about the name, the origin and the ingredients of each foodstuff displayed. Over 200 visitors had the opportunity to taste food that are not commonly available in Malaysia, such as “Shashlyk” from Central Asia, “Vadai” from South India, “Kabsa” from Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Egg Pancake from China, Kimchi Noodles from Korea and more. While feasting on these delectable foods, participants also fed their minds with knowledge as they learnt about the preparation processes and stories behind the foods through interactive conversations among each other. The study hall of APLC immediately transformed into a platform for cultural exchange.

It was an eye-opening experience for everyone who attended. Mahmood Al Harrasi, an Omani student of APLC, expressed his excitement during the event, “Today is a great day for me, as I tried many foods from many cultures, and I have learnt a lot through tasting the foods of others.” 

The monthly APU Student Workshop organised by Asia Pacific Language Centre (APLC) was held on 31st July, 2015 in Asia Pacific Language Centre (APLC) @ South City Plaza (SCP) from 2:30pm to 4:30 p.m. The workshop entitled “Effective Public Speaking – It’s not as hard as you think” aimed at building participants’ confidence and fluency in speaking in public. In addition, participants were introduced to different types of presentation skills, presentation methods and presentation language. It was attended by both APLC and APU Degree students.

The workshop started off with an ice-breaking session where participants introduced themselves to the group. It then moved on to a discussion session on selected topics. In one session, a participant was overcome with emotions while presenting, and this created empathy among the others.  The next session’s main activity which was designed to help improve impromptu speaking skill was the main highlight of the day. During this session, each group member had to collaborate with each other to maintain the flow of conversation using selected vocabulary. From this session, it was obvious that some participants have a natural born talent to speak in public while others were picking up the skills at an amazing speed while enjoying the laughter and funny banter.

In the end, the participants were taken through a series of slides and explanation on how to organise their presentation and pitfalls to avoid in making a public speech. Through written feedback, most who attended have requested more speaking sessions such as this to be held, and of course APLC strives to make sure this is done.

We are pleased to announce that our Asia Pacific Language Centre (APLC) was accorded 5 Stars under the SKIPS (Sistem Kualiti Institusi Pengajian Swasta) ratings exercise conducted by the Ministry of Education in 2014.
 
APLC was among only 5 Language Centres in Selangor who were accorded 5 Stars – the highest SKIPS rating possible. A total of 150 Language Centres were Audited by the Selangor State Education Department in 2014 as part of this exercise, and a panel of Ministry officials had visited APLC in May 2014 for this purpose.
 
The Audit Instrument used for the SKIPS assessment is  very comprehensive, covering the full range of activities carried out, including areas such as Establishment, Management, Curriculum Development, Teaching, Learning and Assessment, Teacher Development and Student Discipline.

APLC achieved an overall score of 96.46%, including earning perfect 100% scores in 3 areas – Teaching & Learning, Staff Management and Development, and Student Discipline. SKIPS rating Certificates were presented to selected Institutions during a ceremony which was held on Monday 14th September at the Selangor State Education Department, Shah Alam.
 
Credit goes to  Managers of APLC - Ms. Sharen and Pn. Haryati and all the staff of APLC who had put in tremendous effort before and during the SKIPS visit, and who have also worked continuously to ensure high quality teaching/learning delivery and management of APLC.

The monthly APLC Event organised by Asia Pacific Language Centre (APLC) was held on 3rd September 2015 (Thursday) in Asia Pacific Language Centre (APLC) @ South City Plaza (SCP) from 1:00pm to 2:30 p.m. This time around the event was organised under the theme Meet & Greet and was attended by more than 130 APLC students from across the globe.

How was this event different from the usual monthly event? First and foremost, there was the absence of the usual performances and music. With its simplicity, the event aimed at creating positive opportunities for APLC students to create a network of new friends and also bonding with the teachers ‘Malaysian Style!’ - through delicious home-cooked food by APLC staff and relaxed conversation. To top it off, there was also ample food generously sponsored by APU, thus many came for second and even third helping.

Not only that, the event successfully created a lot of space for APLC students to use English while socialising with those from other countries and levels. Going around, one could hear laughter and animated conversations in English as everyone sat together to enjoy the food. To make students feel more at home, APLC staff helped with the food serving and spent time chatting with students on everyday topics, just like what we do when we go to a Malaysian open house! 

At the end of the day, it warmed the heart to see new friendships developed and language barrier disappeared when students are put together in an encouraging and lively environment such as this event.