It's the ultimate hard lesson in learning English.
Two years after a language institute closed down, a student who did not have the chance to take a single lesson is still being chased for debts for course equipment she never had a chance to use.
She is also facing the possibility of being declared bankrupt.
The student, only identifying herself as Ms Wong, said since Linguaphone filed for liquidation in January 2009 she had received up to six letters from the provisional liquidator, RSM Nelson Wheeler Corporate Advisory Services, asking her to pay a 'material cost' of HK$2,320 for a CD player, CDs and textbooks.
In the latest letter she received on January 5, the liquidator demanded that if she did not pay in 14 days, it would apply for her to be made bankrupt. It did not accept her offer to return the equipment instead of paying the fee, said Democratic Party and Yuen Long District Council member Zachary Wong Wai-yin, who has been helping her.
The student paid more than HK$2,000 in tuition fees in advance for a HK$17,350 English-language course, with the institute closing before she had her first lesson. However, she failed to claim this back.