Talking to lonely old Chinese people on the phone

[Clarabelle]

So my phone package includes free landline calls to China and it got me thinking surely there are millions of lonely old Chinese people who speak Mandarin who'd love to receive calls from people learning Chinese? There most be millions of them who've already told their stories to the neighbours and would love new sets of ears.

 

Any ideas as to how I would go about sourcing these people? 

[Lu]

Assuming you don't need all millions of them, perhaps just ask around? Some of your Chinese friends/acquaintances/coworkers probably have a lonely uncle or grandmother who would be up for this. Make sure you specify they have to speak fairly standard Mandarin.

[DavyJonesLocker]

Advertise on one of the Chinese social media sites. Someone's son or daughter might pick up on it.

 

Or else a wechat moments posts. Your Chinese will have to be good to  communicate with an older person on the phone

 

Nice idea though. 

[Tomsima]

There are millions of old people in china who don't speak putonghua that's for sure. If you have a basis in a 方言 this ideas actually has really good potential

[zander1]

Not sure how this would work but I’ve gotta say I think this is a really clever idea (not just for Chinese, anyone learning another language really). Who wants to set up the app and IPO for $1bn? 

[Lu]

John Pasden of Sinosplice did something somewhat similar: find people who are bored to talk to.

[ZC]

You might want a basic proficiency level test if you make a billion $$ IPO on this, since I can think of plenty of people learning Chinese (myself extremely included) that would try to call somebody without the requisite skill and baffle the heck out of some poor old man.

[Lu]

I'd hope the old man in question would have signed himself up, so he knows what's going on when he gets a stammering laowai on the phone. I can see all kinds of possible issues with this service, but this is one of the least of them.

[abcdefg]

6 hours ago, Clarabelle said:

So my phone package includes free landline calls to China and it got me thinking surely there are millions of lonely old Chinese people who speak Mandarin who'd love to receive calls from people learning Chinese? There most be millions of them who've already told their stories to the neighbours and would love new sets of ears.

 

I'm not sure of the mechanics of finding suitable people, but my initial thought is that this exchange might work better if you tried to concentrate on some specific interest or subject and then branch out from there. If you just look for people who are bored and/or lonely, it might seem like a scam and people would be reluctant to engage with you, who would after all, be a stranger. 

 

People might be more likely to chat if you asked them about tea, or food, or martial arts, or Chinese history, or poetry or gardening or whatever. After you became acquainted and a level of mutual trust was developed, it would be possible to branch out. Would not to be rigid about the topicality of the chat; it is just to "get your foot in the door." It also would keep you from just concentrating on basketball and the weather. 

 

Lots of Chinese, especially elderly, are wary of opening up to strangers. It would take time and energy, especially when it's over the phone and not face to face. 

 

For several years I had  several elderly friends, met through tai qi practice in Kunming. Gradually we got acquainted and we could go places together after class. Conversation eventually turned to our personal stories, but that had to evolve slowly and naturally. I recall one day when one of the old ladies brought yellowing photos to show me: "That's me in pigtails at age 11, right after red army soldiers from the Long March came to our village, etc... My uncle Zhang was so excited...Aunty Mei cooked a chicken..."

[happy_hyaena]

abcdefg is right. I listened to a speech by a guy who said that successful startups are often successful because they started with a product that a specific group of people could really love, rather than an idea that slightly appeals to many people. So Amazon with an online store for books, Facebook with a social media service specifically made for college students, etc. It's usually easier to expand on an idea some people really love and make bigger group of people also really love it, than it is to take a slightly good idea a lot of people like and try to make it even better.

[anonymoose]

Is it just me, or does the idea of speaking to strangers on the phone, in whatever language, not seem appealing?

 

Besides, in my personal experience, communicating over the phone is probably the hardest apsect of using Chinese. I know you have to practice to get good, but I think one would already have to be at a pretty advanced level for this to be feasible.

[abcdefg]

18 hours ago, anonymoose said:

I know you have to practice to get good, but I think one would already have to be at a pretty advanced level for this to be feasible.

 

Agree. Even video Skype would be better than just a phone call. 

[889]

You could try just calling around at random: "妈?"

 

Like that old Nichols and May sketch.

 

[LiMo]

I now dread phone calls in Chinese. Sometimes I ask people to hang up and text me instead and they somehow just don't get it, then I have to explain how there's this thing called not speaking Chinese very well. I feel like I should just scream down the phone:" 我是個外國人，漢語太爛了，麻煩你發個短信...謝謝！"

 

It's a pretty cool idea and you might be surprised what people tell you, but my experience is with taxi drivers. My friend gets in the cabs and just starts chatting, he's got some good conversation practice and I've sometimes wondered how it compares to lessons. It's certainly much more organic and fun, but maybe too hit and miss for some people. Still cheaper than a private tutor back home though, I'd wager.

 

 

[Xiao Kui]

I have met quite a few older folks that use Wechat. Starting a wechat group with (grand) parents of friends and acquaintances might be an option.

 

Some pros:

1. The audio message feature would allow you to re-listen to both their recordings and your own for clarity

2. Option to video call or type

3. The older people in the group might enjoy hearing from each other as well as from you

 

Potential cons:

1. I have seen PSAs that feature older Chinese waiting all day for a call from grown children only to end up lonely and disappointed. The message was "for Pete's sake, would it kill you to call your parents once in awhile?"  You possibly talking to someone's parents more than they do might become a source of contention and/or resentment. (or could motivate them to talk to their parents more -  so possibly a pro?)

2.  Excludes many older people that do not use Wechat, perhaps the most isolated that would enjoy it most.

[abcdefg]

1 hour ago, LiMo said:

My friend gets in the cabs and just starts chatting, he's got some good conversation practice and I've sometimes wondered how it compares to lessons. It's certainly much more organic and fun, but maybe too hit and miss for some people. Still cheaper than a private tutor back home though, I'd wager.

 

I do that too. If the driver is taciturn or sullen, then of course I don't pursue it. But lots of them are bored and chatty.

 

The thing that has been most helpful personally has been to develop more of a thick skin than I had starting out and to adopt a Chinese way of asking rather direct questions. I now ask things that I would view as impolite if asked of a stranger in the West. What I found is that if one doesn't do this, the "chat" turns into a Q&A session, questions and answers, with the native speaker (the driver) asking a bunch of questions and the foreigner (me) just supplying the answers. 

 

So I turn it around: "How long have you been driving? How much does a car like this cost new? How many years do you get out of it? What does your wife think about your line of work? How old are you? How does Kunming traffic compare to where you are originally from? Have the long hours affected your health? What's the most you ever earned as a driver in one month? What did you do for CNY this year? -- Did you get to go home 回老家?" And so on.

[Lu]

29 minutes ago, abcdefg said:

So I turn it around: "How long have you been driving? How much does a car like this cost new? How many years do you get out of it? What does your wife think about your line of work? How old are you? How does Kunming traffic compare to where you are originally from? Have the long hours affected your health? What's the most you ever earned as a driver in one month? What did you do for CNY this year? -- Did you get to go home 回老家?" And so on.

Yes, this. Turn the questioning right back at 'em. When I was living in Taiwan, I was running an informal poll of taxi driver income (you can ask them that!), which was enlightening. (They made about the same as I did, but I was young, single and living in a 套房.)

[DavyJonesLocker]

Wechat video call might be better, and free

[irene001]

I don't think it might be a good idea. As you know, many old chinese people could't speak a standard Mandarin and  they didn't get good education while they were young. From my personal view, it's better to protect them from being spammed by the online information.

[大块头]

Depending on where you live, you may not even need to use a telephone if you want to practice your Chinese with elderly people. A senior center near my house has a lot of Chinese-speaking clients, and I've been volunteering as an English teacher there for a few months. I highly recommend it.