Related News
Getting to know you the new way
By Fei Lai |
March 7, 2009, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
NEWCOMERS to the city can meet locals and discuss the language and culture in bars, clubs or restaurants. Or they can now try the Bailing Strait Language Salon. Fei Lai looks at the option
For newcomers to the city, finding local friends with similar interests within a week is not a complete mission impossible.
There are plenty of bars, clubs, gyms and restaurants where people from overseas can meet and have fun with locals.
But now there is a different way. The Bailing Strait Language Salons, a free program offering salons in English, German, Japanese and French each Saturday afternoon, provides a quick way for expats to merge into city life.
The salon made its debut at the Changning District Worker's Culture Palace early last month. Organized by the palace, it set out to offer a cultural program with languages and also acted as a welcome for the World Expo 2010 Shanghai.
"As a cultural program, we'd like to provide a high-level platform for local residents to enjoy foreign culture and at the meantime, allow expats feel the beat of local life," says Bai Di, deputy director of Changning District Worker's Culture Palace. "Several people called after we posted a small advertisement announcing our first salon in a local newspaper."
On the first day, the room was packed with more than 50 people ranging from five to 80 years old. White-collar workers accounted for most of the group with many speaking a second language and some speaking a third.
Coffee, tea and cookies were offered and those attending were polite and attentive. Bai says it seemed to be a cultivated gathering with a hint of other cultures.
Discussions on life, culture and the Expo were greeted enthusiastically.
"I unexpectedly found a place where I could make friends, exchange ideas and practice my English," says Xu Hanwen, a 26-year-old sales manager. "To access a city's internationalization, people usually look at how open the city is to the outside world. And I think, this city has absolutely made it."
Expats can find native Chinese speakers as their language partners at the salons as well.
"We are looking forward to more support from foreign volunteers who are native speakers," Bai says. "French is very much in demand."
Joanna Johnston from England is one of the first volunteer expats. Her degree is from Cambridge, where she specialized in English and education. Her doctorate is in education and communications from Newcastle University and she picked up a Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate before coming to Asia.
After living in Changning District for around three years, her meeting with Bai was unexpected.
"I met Johnston twice in the doorway of a 24-hour store near my office," Bai says. "The second time I saw her, I talked about the idea of the salon. She was really enthusiastic and immediately responded."
Now, Johnston wants to take time out from being a teacher to become a student again and is trying to learn Chinese and Chinese cooking.
To find native speakers of other languages as volunteers, Bai has to move around to locate the right people. After a month's work, she found support from the Centre Crelune de Langue et Culture Francaises and Disney English. The German Industry & Commerce (Taicang) Co Ltd Shanghai branch has also promised volunteer native speakers for the salon.
Having stayed in the United States for three years with her family, Bai's overseas experience as a volunteer at libraries and schools -- teaching Chinese cooking and giving lectures on Chinese culture -- has helped her organize these events.
Now that the event has been going smoothly for a month, Bai, always full of creative ideas, is thinking about forming a drama club for Shakespeare plays in English.
"The pleasure and comfort that foreigners experience in Shanghai can serve as an invisible name card for the city," says Zhang Longfu, Party secretary of the Trade Union of Changning District. "When they go home, they will be great promoters for our city, describing it to their friends in their own words."
With the Shanghai Expo just around the corner, more overseas visitors will arrive in the city. It will be a challenge for the city to make all of them feel at home.
Changning District has encouraged expats to participate in volunteer activities.
One American volunteer, Susan, is such an example. Living in a community on Jiangsu Road, she speaks fluent Chinese.
When she learned that many neighbors wanted to learn English but found it hard to find a native English speaker as a teacher, she volunteered to hold a free class for the community every Friday afternoon. She bought textbooks from the United States for the students.
The Hongqiao community has also invited foreign volunteers to teach Expo English to the residents. Up till now, more than 200 people have attended the classes, where the cultures of the United States, Egypt and Australia are introduced.
Bailing Strait Language Salon
Date: Every Saturday, 2-4pm
Venue: Changning District Worker's Culture Palace, 4/F, 1250 Yuyuan Rd
Tel: 6125-3126
E-mail: dibai_sh@yahoo.com
Website: www.cnwhg.com
For newcomers to the city, finding local friends with similar interests within a week is not a complete mission impossible.
There are plenty of bars, clubs, gyms and restaurants where people from overseas can meet and have fun with locals.
But now there is a different way. The Bailing Strait Language Salons, a free program offering salons in English, German, Japanese and French each Saturday afternoon, provides a quick way for expats to merge into city life.
The salon made its debut at the Changning District Worker's Culture Palace early last month. Organized by the palace, it set out to offer a cultural program with languages and also acted as a welcome for the World Expo 2010 Shanghai.
"As a cultural program, we'd like to provide a high-level platform for local residents to enjoy foreign culture and at the meantime, allow expats feel the beat of local life," says Bai Di, deputy director of Changning District Worker's Culture Palace. "Several people called after we posted a small advertisement announcing our first salon in a local newspaper."
On the first day, the room was packed with more than 50 people ranging from five to 80 years old. White-collar workers accounted for most of the group with many speaking a second language and some speaking a third.
Coffee, tea and cookies were offered and those attending were polite and attentive. Bai says it seemed to be a cultivated gathering with a hint of other cultures.
Discussions on life, culture and the Expo were greeted enthusiastically.
"I unexpectedly found a place where I could make friends, exchange ideas and practice my English," says Xu Hanwen, a 26-year-old sales manager. "To access a city's internationalization, people usually look at how open the city is to the outside world. And I think, this city has absolutely made it."
Expats can find native Chinese speakers as their language partners at the salons as well.
"We are looking forward to more support from foreign volunteers who are native speakers," Bai says. "French is very much in demand."
Joanna Johnston from England is one of the first volunteer expats. Her degree is from Cambridge, where she specialized in English and education. Her doctorate is in education and communications from Newcastle University and she picked up a Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate before coming to Asia.
After living in Changning District for around three years, her meeting with Bai was unexpected.
"I met Johnston twice in the doorway of a 24-hour store near my office," Bai says. "The second time I saw her, I talked about the idea of the salon. She was really enthusiastic and immediately responded."
Now, Johnston wants to take time out from being a teacher to become a student again and is trying to learn Chinese and Chinese cooking.
To find native speakers of other languages as volunteers, Bai has to move around to locate the right people. After a month's work, she found support from the Centre Crelune de Langue et Culture Francaises and Disney English. The German Industry & Commerce (Taicang) Co Ltd Shanghai branch has also promised volunteer native speakers for the salon.
Having stayed in the United States for three years with her family, Bai's overseas experience as a volunteer at libraries and schools -- teaching Chinese cooking and giving lectures on Chinese culture -- has helped her organize these events.
Now that the event has been going smoothly for a month, Bai, always full of creative ideas, is thinking about forming a drama club for Shakespeare plays in English.
"The pleasure and comfort that foreigners experience in Shanghai can serve as an invisible name card for the city," says Zhang Longfu, Party secretary of the Trade Union of Changning District. "When they go home, they will be great promoters for our city, describing it to their friends in their own words."
With the Shanghai Expo just around the corner, more overseas visitors will arrive in the city. It will be a challenge for the city to make all of them feel at home.
Changning District has encouraged expats to participate in volunteer activities.
One American volunteer, Susan, is such an example. Living in a community on Jiangsu Road, she speaks fluent Chinese.
When she learned that many neighbors wanted to learn English but found it hard to find a native English speaker as a teacher, she volunteered to hold a free class for the community every Friday afternoon. She bought textbooks from the United States for the students.
The Hongqiao community has also invited foreign volunteers to teach Expo English to the residents. Up till now, more than 200 people have attended the classes, where the cultures of the United States, Egypt and Australia are introduced.
Bailing Strait Language Salon
Date: Every Saturday, 2-4pm
Venue: Changning District Worker's Culture Palace, 4/F, 1250 Yuyuan Rd
Tel: 6125-3126
E-mail: dibai_sh@yahoo.com
Website: www.cnwhg.com
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
