English corners in Dalian

[macsattack]

Hello I am a native English speaker coming to Dalian for a week or so and would like to help any locals with English. Perhaps they can help show me around the city and we can converse in English.

What is my best method to find people interested in this ?

Thanks kindly for any help.

[ChTTay]

Could try couchsurfing or a local forum... Either expat or Chinese.

[eion_padraig]

Last summer I went to Dalian for 2 weeks to study Mandarin at a private language school. I used WeChat to find a language partner, who I met with twice. She was an English teacher, so she was off for the summer. If you have a WeChat account, you could put this in your status and try using Find People nearby. You have to be a bit careful as you might find yourself in one of the good old tried and true foreigner scams. If you do meet with someone, I'd suggest meeting them at a McDonalds/KFC or some neutral place. 

 

I got to know a couple that ran a cafe called Bon Bon Cafe, where a number of the customers speak English. It's located near downtown Dalian. It's address is 32 Wuhan Ave (武汉街32号/wuhan jie). It's just south of Zhong Shan Square (中山广场).

 

There is also very good pizza place, called Brooklyn Pizza, where you can find some folks who speak English too.

 

Do you know what part of the city you'll be staying in?

 

Eion

 

 

 

 

 

 

[michaelS]

http://www.shamrockbar.org/

[macsattack]

thanks guys for the advice. What is the biggest web forum for Chinese learners of English i.e the opposite of this site?

I could post on there to find some people.

I am sure there must be many thousands of local Chinese who would be interested. It is just a matter of getting in contact - preferably in advance.

I am also going to Dandong and Harbin.

 

Thanks kindly.

[eion_padraig]

The trouble is you can get in contact with people in advance and then they don't follow through. Is this your first time visiting China? Learning to roll with the situation and improvising works very well in China because too often plans fall through.

I think that's one of my favorite parts of Strange Stones by Peter Hessler where he admits to not being a good planner and how living in China made it worse. But he talks about how Chinese are master of improvisation. I gave my parents the book to read and my mother referenced that same story when she said, "I see why you like China so much."

 

Eion

[wulfgar]

 

Hello I am a native English speaker coming to Dalian for a week or so and would like to help any locals with English. Perhaps they can help show me around the city and we can converse in English.

What is my best method to find people interested in this ?

I don't know Dalian well, but I've had success with several methods. Listed in order of recent success

1) Language exchange sites like conversationexchange.com, interpals.net, etc. You can sort by location, sex, etc and send out emails with your contact information saying exactly what you want. Not surprisingly, this type of site is the best there is for finding language exchange partners.

2) Meet-ups (using meetup.com). They are usually terrible for learning Chinese, but great for helping Chinese speakers learn english. If you prefer a 50/50 exchange, these are superb places to make contact with future partners. I think you can post notices on their wall (online) too.

3) Find a "Chinese corner" in the local universities and post notices. Sometimes the universities don't have such places, but do have student bulletin boards. Ask around.

4) Approach people who look interesting, and ask them to exchange languages, or exchange contact information for later. This is actually the best method, but I rarely have the courage. Don't be like me.