Are there any expats or English speaking people in Zhangjiagang?

[Juergen]

Hi,

 

couldn't find any recent post about it, that's why I opened up a new one and hope it works out.

 

I moved recently to Zhangjiagang and would like to meet other expats or English speaking people to hang out to find new friends or to have a good time.

Because of the language barrier it isn't easy to spend free time in company in a meaningful way.

Male, 49 years, built in Austria and worked amongst European locations for more than two decades in Sri Lanka in textiles, as I do here in China as well. 

 

Please feel free to contact me via WeChat: juergenishere

 

Cheers,

 

Juergen

[abcdefg]

What's it like there? 

[Juergen]

Hi abcdefg,

 

nice environment in a quite small city .... for Chinese standards. ZJG has won in the resent years aüarently the first price as best city in China, as I heard.

But it's difficult to find an English speaking community here.

 

Cheers,

 

Juergen

[abcdefg]

Personally, I avoid the English-speaking community like the plague, even when there is one. In my case, being from the US, they always want to talk baseball and party politics and then complain about the local pizza. 99% of my friends have always been Chinese when I'm living in China. 

[Juergen]

Understand your points. Just a bit difficult since I don't speak Chinese at all.

[suMMit]

On 5/14/2024 at 11:08 PM, abcdefg said:

and then complain about the local pizza.

This sums it up😅

[Jan Finster]

On 5/16/2024 at 6:31 AM, Juergen said:

Just a bit difficult since I don't speak Chinese at all.

Depends on your time horizon. If you plan to stay in China for longer, this can be a great motivator to learn Chinese. 

 

Otherwise, if you run into foreigners outside of tourist spots, approach them proactively. 

[abcdefg]

Is there a way you could take Chinese tutoring, Chinese language instruction, live from a local? Preferably one-to-one and face-to-face. Any teacher worth her salt would include "social" language very early to help you meet people casually, especially if you let her know it was a priority. Doesn't need to be a professional teacher of Chinese with a masters degree. I'll bet your work colleagues could suggest someone. 

 

The solution to the "I can't communicate with the locals" problem is not to find other English-speaking expats. The solution is to learn Chinese, very fast, very "down and dirty" without worrying too much about the fine points of grammar or pronunciation. Pretend you are an explorer thrust into an alien culture, which, in fact, you are. 

 

Harness the angst, use it to your advantage.

 

Edited to add: One approach that I have found helpful in locations that don't have formal schools for teaching Chinese to foreigners is to ask around among teachers who teach English to Chinese kids. More than once, I have found individual teachers who are willing to tutor "in reverse" -- namely, teaching Chinese to an English-speaking foreign pupil, the pupil being me. 

 

Another approach, admittedly less successful, is to post notices in coffee shops -- these places often have bulletin boards. Ask a work colleague to help you write your ad in Chinese Hanzi characters. Post it in Chinese and in English. Along those same lines, could you circulate your search request at work, where you are employed? Word of mouth is very effective. 

 

Best of luck! I do hope it works out for you. 

 

[MadmaxxxMaSiDe]

Servas Jürgen, you already got quite a few good suggestions here. My first thought would also be signing up for language classes.

In your case I´d rather go for group classes though, as this would be the easiest way to get to know other people and maybe becoming good friends with people through shared extra-curricular interests.

[abcdefg]

That's a good point. One that I hadn't considered. 

[Juergen]

Hi guys, thanks for all your suggestions. I will have a look around where to find some possibilities to catch some Chinese language knowledge and see how it goes from there on. Unfortunately, I am relatively inflexible for fixed lesson times because of my work, as I am on the road very often. But I'll find out what offers are available.

 

Cheers guys!

[anonymoose]

On 5/14/2024 at 4:08 PM, abcdefg said:

complain about the local pizza

 

The obvious solution is to enjoy the vast array of local cuisine, but if you are a pizza aficionado, I can quite understand the dismay.

[suMMit]

That's because they haven't tried the strawberry pizza