Where to find online friends not trying to learn English

[webmagnets]

Does anyone have a strategy for finding new qq or wechat friends online; besides using the language exchange websites? I would like to find friends who aren't learning English.

[anonymoose]

Just chat in Chinese and don't let on that you are not Chinese.

[webmagnets]

That would work if I could find a friend without going to italki or other language exchange places. If I find them there they already will know that I speak English.

[anonymoose]

Use "shake" on wechat

[Shelley]

Wechat has a find people option, I am not sure if it is only for local people or if you can change the locations.

 

When you say you don't want people who are learning English is that because you don't want to spend your time "teaching" English and you want to spend your time talking in Chinese. If that's the case other people who are learning Chinese might also be good for practice.

 

Oh anonymoose got in there before me but yes use "shake".

 

@anonymoose I thought this only got you people near you.

[webmagnets]

Shake is getting me people who aren't Chinese, but they are 5000+ miles away. I will keep shaking and see if it is worth the physical labor ;-)

[dnevets]

Are you on Lang-8? Add your wechat / QQ number to your profile and you'll get a regular stream of people adding you. Yes, they're lang-8 people, so naturally they want to use a bit of English too. But in my experience many (most?) are just happy to make friends and are delighted to find out they can chat in Chinese with a non-Chinese person.

[grawrt]

Just searching for any old chinese person will probably just give you the generic 'wanting to practice english' chinese person, because well, isn't that the reason why you're searching for a chinese friend too?

 

I think it would be better if you instead focus your search on finding someone with a common hobby or interest. From my experience I found that regardless of their level of english skill, once people are excited to talk about their favorite idols or tv series, the conversation is just full chinese. I met a girl recently on lang-8, her english is great so I thought oh it's going to be 100% english but decided to humor her. I don't know how it came up but I mentioned Kim Woo Bin, and it turned out we both love him and we spoke entirely in Chinese about how yummy he was. Okay, maybe not the kind of conversation you're looking for but this was just an example

 

Maybe you could try Lang-8, or start a Weibo account and start following posts on your favorite Tv series or sport or any other hobby besides learning Chinese.

[tooironic]

You could try the Chinese version of Omegle.

[Shelley]

There is a people nearby in Discover you set up the local and a greeting and your gender (compulsory I think).

 

Then finds you people nearer to you.

Have you updated your wechat lately, I think this was in one of the recent updates.

 

I just did it and have found people from 200m to 5km away looks like fun, but I think you need to be careful as with any internet interactions.

[Shelley]

It just occurred to me this forum is usually populated with people not learning English but Chinese. Try posting a "anyone want to chat in Chinese" topic.

[oceancalligraphy]

There's also the Chinese Corner http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/forum/34-chinese-corner/ on the forum.

[dementior]

陌陌 is your friend for this one. Even if they have an interest in learning English, you interest in learning Chinese should be stronger...

But obviously if you do not want to practice English with them or help them with it, your Chinese should be good enough to make the conversation interesting... I mean you cannot expect someone online to be willing to chat with you if they find you boring.

[XuanWu]

badoo.com ?