Making Chinese friends in China/Beijing -halp

[airthus]

hey,

I study chinese in mainland china and my school is completely foreigners, most of them dont really have any Chinese friends. But i really would rather hang out with Chinese people in china to help me practice Chinese and meet new people.

where do you guys suggest a good place for making Chinese friends is? I guess bars, but im not too sure how the conversation would go in propaganda (bar in beijing, havent been yet but iv heard stories) between a foreigner and a chinese person.

[flameproof]

where do you guys suggest a good place for making Chinese friends is?

Bus, McDonalds, a nearby noodle shop, QQ, gym, while jogging, tai chi in the park, dancing in the park. Actually everywhere outside your school.

I met my best BJ friend in a supermarkt while shopping, and many more via QQ. Have you considered placing an ad for any activity, such as language, food, hiking?

IMHO it's not that hard to meet Chinese people in Beijing.

[airthus]

I registered for qq, but its just a messenger right? How do you meet people on QQ?

"Have you considered placing an ad for any activity, such as language, food, hiking?"

Also where do you place an add for those activities? Is it a website or..?

thanks!

[flameproof]

Before QQ had many chatrooms, many of them local. They are all closed down now.

For activity partners have a look here:

http://www.thebeijinger.com/classifieds/general/Personals/Seeking-Activity-Partners

There is also a section for "friends" and "language exchange". I think hiking or some sport activities are good.

[airthus]

thanks i will definitely look at the website for a language partner. have you had any lucking using the website before?

[flameproof]

I got a good response in the language section and have met a few chat partners in BJ. Some just want to say hi, some are about commercial sex, many have no available time when I have time. Out of 10 I can see maybe 1-3

Since you stay in BJ you have more time and can do other activities. Many locals like hiking, that's a good way too. Or some sort of sport that have chance to talk. Some sports are almost 100% local, such as table tennis.

Chances are everywhere, except in your dorm.

[skylee]

I met my best BJ friend in a supermarkt while shopping

How? I shop at my local supermarket everyday but have never made a friend there.

[imron]

Possibly because people aren't surprised to hear you talking in Chinese or see you reading a Chinese label

[flameproof]

How? I shop at my local supermarket everyday but have never made a friend there.

Maybe you are too focused and shopping and miss the beauty between the aisles?

I think I had to ask something, that's how the conversation started... and then went to a coffee place nearby....

That was a few years ago and we are still in contact.

[roddy]

Go and sit on a bench at a university with a Chinese textbook. You'll have to fight people off.

[jacki]

I had three sets of good Chinese friends:

One I made because when I first got to China I had the most horrible fiasco with the Bank of China, and the fantastic people in the international students office found me Chinese girls to take to the bank with me so they could tell me what was going on.

One I made through my professor, she had a friend who wanted a language parter.

The other set though, I made just by sitting by the lake on campus. This elderly woman, who I think either is or was a math professor, came over and asked if I spoke Chinese, and started talking to me. Then, a group of girls from another university were walking around Nankai campus for fun, overheard me speaking Chinese and came over to join in. They sort of saved me from the old lady who was trying to get me to admit that Americans think Chinese people are backwards, and I kept being like "Uh... no, really, we don't think that." But the three girls that came to talk to me ended up being really, really good friends of mine.

[airthus]

jacki, what campus do you go to?

i walked around a university campus a few times and even sat in the park to study for a while but not many people seemed to notice. When i walk around it seems people stare at me with some huge goofy grin and i'v even tried a few times to talk to a few girls that walked by and they were literally staring at me like this: :mrgreen:

first time i said hello in chinese and asked them if this was there university but they kinda ran away laughing a few other times people just told me yes and walked away. must have been at the wrong university...

[bigtops]

What Roddy said. But if your Chinese isn't already very good, you may need to be pretty adamant about not speaking English. Like sometimes... very adamant! Haha.

Or walk in the park. I like the Yuan Dynasty canal walk park which you can walk right into from the 惠新西桥南口 subway station as well as several others. Lots of people stroll there all day and especially after dinner but it's no tourist area. You can certainly meet people there if you ain't shy with the 你好s or draw attention to yourself with a Chinese textbook, practicing martials arts, etc.

[skylee]

actually I think roddy's suggestion works. You see I met this italian guy who was reading a Chinese textbook in a park in Rome (!) and I just couldn't stop myself from chatting with him. But it turned out that the guy could hardly speak any chinese so we ended up chatting in English.

[flameproof]

first time i said hello in chinese and asked them if this was there university but they kinda ran away laughing a few other times people just told me yes and walked away. must have been at the wrong university...

A good strategy for starting a conversation is to avoid asking a yes/no question. Since you study Chinese, you could always ask what a certain character means, or for a food place nearby. Or just ask them what is a good place to find people for language exchange....

[zerolife]

Sitting in the park as others have suggested might work but if you are in BJ I would be a bit more active ... there are simply too many Westerners for you to stand out.

I don't think Propaganda is a good idea. It's a good place to hang out with your Western friends but personally I think most of the Chinese girls going there (and other similar bars) are only there to find a Western guy or/and a free ticket to your home country. In fact, pretty much all of the Chinese university students I've met have never gone to a bar (Propaganda-type, not the milder Lush-type). A lot of them think it's a "bad place" and in some way they might be actually right.

I had some successes with finding real friends on the classified section of TheBeijinger.com so I would post an ad there.

Otherwise, which university are you going? I think even in BCLU you can find real Chinese friends that are not only hanging out with you to practise English. Most universities have student orgs you can join for example.

[jacki]

I was at Nankai University in Tianjin. In my experience, only about half the college aged kids I came across could speak English to any sort of conversational degree, so I didn't have as much of a problem as I expected with speaking just Chinese all the time. My real downfall in not speaking Chinese came when I went out to lunch with my classmates after school got out - I was good friends with a lot of Polish girls and they all spoke English so well and our Chinese was so mediocre that it just seemed silly to even try.