Any Shanghai Poddies out there?

hedainian
November 09, 2009, 03:03 AM posted in General Discussion

大家好!

My name is Daniel (中文:何岱年), and I moved to Shanghai a few months ago to pursue an internship opportunity.  Although I am thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to work with my Chinese coworkers and to learn about the Chinese legal system, I feel that my Chinese progress has been very limited.  Outside of discussing law, food, and 开心农场, I don't have a lot of opportunities to use Chinese to discuss other topics. 

I am a big proponent of the power of groups to facilitate language growth.  Above all else, meeting in groups provides accountability and support for those of us who are struggling to stay on track with our Chinese-language studies.  Would anyone here be interested in meeting up on a fairly regular basis to discuss lessons on ChinesePod?  I envision weekly (or biweekly) meetings where such a group grabs some coffee and discusses a couple of assigned lessons. I generally study the Upper Intermediate/Advanced/Media lessons, but I am open to suggestions that anyone might have.  

Is anyone interested in creating such a group?  If so, let's make this thing happen.

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bodawei
November 09, 2009, 01:57 PM

I can't meet up Daniel, I live about 10,000 miles away.  But I note that you share a Chinese family name with our Poems with Pete 的 Pete.  You are in good company.  Do you ask a lot of questions too?  

:-) 

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hedainian
November 09, 2009, 04:30 PM

Haha Although Pete and I share the same Chinese surname, I am certain that I do not ask as many questions as Pete.  That being said, since hearing Pete's story about the origin of last name, I have occasionally stolen used his explanation to describe my name to Chinese people. It cracks them up EVERY time.

For that, I am very grateful to Pete and extremely glad we share surnames.

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matt_c
November 09, 2009, 04:51 PM

@hedainian I would certainly be interested but I have a very varying schedule and thus cannot commit to regular meetings. Either way, I like food and drink so lets hang out some time.

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hedainian
November 11, 2009, 06:22 AM

@matt_c Sounds good, buddy.  I'm always game for food and drinks.

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suxiaoya
November 11, 2009, 07:12 AM

@hedainian -

We're planning our second ChinesePod Shanghai meet-up for the first week of December (details to follow). I'm not sure we saw you at the first event, so perhaps it could be worth coming along to December's?!

Although the meet-up is focused on getting Newbies started, it's totally open and informal, and there were poddies of every level there last week.

Either way, I think your's is a great idea. Let us know how you get on!

 

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yuhanyao72
January 11, 2010, 07:47 AM

何岱年,好名字。哈哈!