English Corner

Every week on campus and in various places around the city Chinese students gather to converse and improve their English. This practice is called English corner, and if you're a foreigner and not careful you might just get roped into one. I attended SU's when I first arrived in Chengdu at the request of my roommate. I haven't been back since. In fact, I've been actively avoiding the gathering.

My first experience with English corner was absolutely overwhelming. Every friday night, a group of close to hundred students gather at the main flagpole on campus. They huddle into small groups and chat with each other, or gather around someone who is particularly fluent to listen. I rode up on my bike, stopped and waited while scanning the crowd for my friend. Within a few minutes, a group of Chinese boys had gathered around me to talk. This small group of boys soon developed into a large group of boys with about thirty students packed in tight to listen. Every five minutes or so, a new student would push their way to the front of the pack and start the conversation over. Where are you from? What are you doing here? You speak Chinese? Is America going to war with Iran? You're so pretty, can I have your phone number? Can you use chopsticks? Can you eat spicy food?

Sometimes a student who had attained near-native fluency would come and discuss things like politics or economics. These people are always fun to talk to because they ask questions about topics Americans don't generally talk about. They ask interesting questions about life in general, and I enjoy having them there. They are usually the ones who know American geography and society as well, so when I tell them I'm from Washington State, they don't ask if I've seen the president. The chopstick and spice question I get asked all the time, do I really look like I'm starving?

The one I have a hard time answering is the phone number question. I'm just not sure how to politely decline phone number requests in this situation. I usually move to make eye contact with someone else and either ignore the question or change the subject. After my first time at English corner, I was fielding calls from Chinese mothers, boys and "friends" for weeks. The problem got so bad that I stopped answering the phone if I didn't recognize the number, or I would put the caller in my phonebook and change their name to DONOTANSWER.

Last week I was invited to English corner again. A friend who I had not seen in a while invited me, and out of guilt for not calling her back in a timely manner, I agreed to go. I'm not sure if she was purposely trying to torture me or she just didn't know that English corner was so taxing on the foreigner. I arrived a few minutes late, and thought a miracle had happened when I didn't see her in the crowd. I got a text message a several minutes later. Nope, it wasn't a miracle, I was at the wrong English corner and she would be coming to find me in a few minutes.

We joined the crowd, and although I got the feeling that she wanted me to spend the evening talking with her, I was soon engaged in conversation with thirty-odd teenage boys. After a couple of hours, my friend looked like she was about to fall asleep and I offered to leave with her. I was glad for the excuse, as the first time I attended English corner I wasn't able to leave until well after midnight. As she was leaving she said, "So next week, how 'bout we meet at that tea house. It's a lot quiter there." Phew!