Sanlitun is most known for its thriving night life, but a different kind of group meets in the district every week for Chinese conversation. (Photo : Getty Images)
A Chinese language group regularly meets in Sanlitun, Beijing, to provide Chinese language instruction to eager foreigners, according to an article by the Global Times.
To recruit members, the group harnesses the power of social networking, posting updates on meetup.com. To date, the "Beijing Happy Zhongwen Jiao" (Chinese Corner) is one of the largest and most active groups in the website, with over 1,500 followers, Chinese and foreigners alike.
"Zhongwen Jiao was established half a year ago when I was unable to find a local gathering devoted to making friends as well as practicing and improving my Chinese language skills," the group's founder, Daniel Rodriguez, said in an interview with the Global Times.
"In Beijing there have been English and half-Chinese, half-English speaking events, but none exclusively dedicated to Chinese," Rodriguez added.
Rodriguez, who has been living in Beijing for six years, started Zhongwen Jiao in 2014. In its early days, the Chinese language corner only had three members, all of whom are Rodriguez's friends. Today, the group regularly attracts approximately 30 people in its weekly events.
"We are very familiar with 'English language corner' because when we studied English, we wanted to have a group where we could communicate only in English," said Poppy Huang, a co-organizer of the event. "Now we are creating a platform for foreigners who want to practice their Chinese as well as make Chinese friends."
"A city like Beijing very much deserves to have a Chinese language corner like this," Rodriguez said.
And rightly so. Over the past decade, "Chinese language fever" has spread around the world like wildfire--an effect of China's rise as a dominant world player in the political and economic arena. In a 2014 Xinhua report, Chinese language learners around the globe have seen an increase from less than 30 million in 2004 to over 100 million in 2014.
Along with the rise of Chinese language learners around the world comes an increase in Chinese language groups, most of which are organized by educational groups and universities supported by the Confucius Institute.
The non-profit educational organization, which is managed by the Ministry of Education, has one goal in mind: to promote Chinese language and culture around the globe.
