English Corner

Because we are native English speakers, we are regularly approached by people interested in practicing English with us.  We obviously cannot meet up with everyone, but we do believe that offering ourselves as language partners is a great way for us to contribute to our community and build friendships.  So in the final weeks before our fall semester of Chinese class kicked off, we decided to host an English Corner in our home as a way to meet some of our neighbors and offer an opportunity for people to practice their English.  It was so much fun! 

It ended up being three men (a neighbor, a guy we met outside one evening, and our landlady's friend) who became the regular attenders...along with their kids!  We had planned for the English Corner to last from 8pm-9:30pm, after our girls go to bed, so we could have actual conversation.  Once the Chinese kids arrived though, we realized pretty quickly that our girls were simply going to have a late night on Wednesdays!  So while Adam spoke Chinglish with the men (their English was not that great and it ended up being a great opportunity for Adam to practice Chinese), I played with the kiddos, which was a great chance for me and the girls to practice Chinese.  All in all, it was a very encouraging time...we feel more connected to people in our community and learned alot about Chinese culture too.