用中文认识世界
中文之友会 is a free global initiative that has been running since early 2021. We are an online community for intermediate and advanced learners of Mandarin who are interested in meeting people from all over the world, i.e., 中文之友会 ("a gathering of friends of Mandarin.")
Purpose
中文之友会 is run by a small group of experienced Mandarin teachers from Australia. Our aim is to provide a safe and comfortable space for intermediate and advanced learners of Mandarin to come and practise spoken Mandarin with professional teachers and other learners who share a common passion for Mandarin learning.
Our events are:
FREE! We see it as a community project and a way in which we can give back to the society using our experience.
on every Thursday 20:00 Melbourne Time (i.e., GMT+10 from April to September; GMT+11 from September to March).
run by professional Mandarin teachers from different parts of China and Taiwan.
attended by:
university students studying Chinese.
those who have previously lived or are currently living in a Chinese-speaking region.
those who use Mandarin for work.
those who are ethnically Chinese but do not consider themselves a native speaker of Mandarin.
those whose proficiency level in Chinese is at least HSK 4 or above.
Our events are not:
language exchange. We only communicate in Mandarin, and we don't want you to be forever only practising self-introduction. However, you will get to meet people from all walks of life and different parts of the world - all passionate about Mandarin.
Chinese lessons. Even though the native speakers are all professional teachers, for our online events, their main role is to "facilitate" but not "teach." Without interrupting the flow of conversations, they provide feedback, support and guidance using the chat function.
for beginners. You need to have at least HSK Level 4 (in spoken proficiency) to participate.
Event formats:
Online weekly discussions
Guest speakers
In-person meetups
Online social game sessions, e.g. Mafia, GeoGuessr etc.