HONG KONG, April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- EnglishCentral Inc. (www.englishcentral.com) announced its appointment of KanHan Educational Services Limited (KanHan EDU), wholly-owned subsidiary of M Dream Inworld Limited (HKEx Stock Code: 8100) to be its business partner in Hong Kong. EnglishCentral makes improving one's English skills fun and effective by turning popular web videos into powerful language learning experiences. Users can select from thousands of videos covering a wide-range of topics from business to entertainment to culture. For example, users can watch tutorials on improving their presentation skills, hear Barack Hussein Obama talking about U.S economic status at White House news conference, take in an interview with Lady Gaga and stay up to date with daily news from Voice of America - all while building their vocabulary and improving their speaking fluency and pronunciation.
EnglishCentral's videos are leveled for difficulty and include vocabulary training as well as a proprietary speech assessment technology that provides instant, personalized pronunciation feedback. Schools and teachers can also benefit by using EnglishCentral's curated video courses as a complement to their own curriculum. Once registered as a school or teacher, EnglishCentral's teacher tools offer the ability to directly manage student groups, study goals, student progress, as well as select video courses.
The basic feature of the service -- watching videos -- is free for learners to immerse themselves in engaging, authentic media with English captions. For serious learners, video courses and unlimited speech training are offered as a premium service for only HK$80 per month or HK$650 per year. Special Educational discounts are also available for schools.
EnglishCentral has raised over USD10 Million from Google Ventures, NTT in Japan, as well as SK Telecom Ventures and Stonebridge Capital in Korea. Rich Miner, Google Ventures partner and co-founder of Android before it was acquired by Google, commented: "EnglishCentral is innovating in the English learning market in a way that models large scale internet sites. We're excited by the company's use of web video, and cloud-based speech technologies to provide a unique and compelling service."
Alan Schwartz, CEO of EnglishCentral, commented: "Based on the robust growth of our service we were seeing from the Japanese and Korean market, we are excited to have KanHan make our service known to the educators, students and parents in Hong Kong and to provide full in-country support."
Lawrence Mo, CEO of KanHan EDU, added: "Adoption of the state-of-the-art language technologies for educational needs and IT applications is deep-rooted in KanHan's culture since its inception in Year 2000. We are impressed with EnglishCentral's language assessment technology and its innovative application in providing the English learning experience. I am confident the new service will bring a new dimension in teaching English to schools and corporations in Hong Kong of which English is an official language alongside with Chinese."
About KanHan Educational Services Limited
KanHan Educational Services Limited has been providing e-learning solutions to schools and corporations with emphasis in Chinese language learning for both Chinese and non-Chinese descent students and is a pioneer in providing online curriculum replacing traditional text book in teaching Chinese language.
For more information, visit: http://edu.kanhan.com and http://www.kanhan.com/
About EnglishCentral
EnglishCentral, Inc., based in Arlington, Massachusetts, makes improving English language skills fun and effective by turning popular web videos into powerful language learning experiences. EnglishCentral users not only watch videos, they speak them and receive instant, personalized pronunciation feedback from proprietary speech technology via its cloud-based system. Its founding investors were Atlas Venture and Google Ventures.
For more information, visit: http://www.englishcentral.com
For media enquiry, please contact:
Ms. Karen Lo
Marketing Executive
Tel: (852) 2851 3020
Fax: (852) 2861 1830
Email: karen.lo@kanhan.com
