Meeting people
SydneyFriends new community site!
Sunday, November 16th, 2008 | Meeting people, Sydney Events, SydneyFriends StartUp | No Comments
Recently I have made a new Community site for SydneyFriends, using the ’Spruz’ Sydneyfriends Community. It’s a 100% free service, why not be one of the first to sign up :). I hope it may help others find happiness in their lives.
I welcome any comments to the quality of the new community site, and hope all users can make the most of it.
If you would like to contribute in SydneyFriends forum about the community page visit the forum page today:
SydneyFriends Forum
Besides working on that page, I’ve also been working on a Japan shopping service, as I am still in Osaka, so if anyone wants some Japanese goods check out: MechaJapan.
I think I will have to make a new site, focussing on Japan, instead of writing about it here 
so I’ll try to keep the focus on Sydney here. If anyone would like to contribute to this blog with articles relating to Sydney, please: Mail me.
Besides attending interviews and making websites, I’ve also been teaching English at a school and privately, which I usually enjoy doing. However I prefer working on web sites, so my time spent (working) online is usually more than the time I teach English.
I often think of the SydneyFriends and SJLG (Sydney Japanese Language Group) community in Sydney and hope everyone is enjoying late Spring weather! I am still organising the monthly SydneyFriends Party for Friday the 21st of November, which will be at Shark Hotel again.
All the best,
Lindsay
Here are a few other projects of mine:
http://www.sydney-friends.com
http://www.japanshoppingservice.com
http://www.wherecaniadvertise.com
http://www.ideason2012.com
Sydney Friends Party!!
Saturday, September 13th, 2008 | Meeting people, Sydney Events | 1 Comment
Last night - Friday the 12th of September, was SydneyFriends first get together !! For most people it was mainly drinks at Shark hotel, those that arrived early ate dinner there too. Later on in the night was some pool playing, more drinking, socialising and a bit of dancing.
At first I came with two friends - two Japanese girls, and we got the tables ready, then a short while later I noticed two others had arrived early (my English teacher friend and his Japanese friend), so they joined us, we ate some pizza and wedges and had a few drinks.
I didn’t have many real confirmation of numbers, maybe 10-15 I thought so it was a good surprise to see that around 30 people turned up in total.
I only put up a few ads at jams.tv and one ad at gumtree, the rest was word-of mouth at a language exchange group, or sms to old contacts on my phone. Most of the people who turned up were either Japanese or Australian, however two people who saw the ad from gumtree were welcome additions to the group - a man from India, and a lady from England, two very friendly people.
Basically it was a fun night… two conversations I remember… one about a person being a “yowajin” weak drinker/ weak man, so I asked what was the opposite in Japanese, so I was given a word about a hard-on, another funny one was I thought I heard someone say “uwaki kusai” -> smells like an affair. when they actually said “waki kusai” smells like armpits. anyway, you had to be there.
Overall most people seemed happy with the night with plenty of nice guys, and beautiful women a good start to what will hopefully be a monthly / every 2 month party, with regular outings in between such as next weeks (20th Sept. 08) walk in the Botanic Gardens. See Sydneyfriends events page for more details.
If you are from a non-Australian culture, and you know of a website where I can invite people from your country living in Sydney to come to one of our future events, please let me know.
-Lindsay
www.sydney-friends.com
Language Exchanges
Friday, September 5th, 2008 | Cultures of Sydney, Meeting people | No Comments
Have you ever heard of people having “Language Exchanges”, have you had many language exchanges yourself? Here I will look at some of the ways that may help you have a successful language exchange.
For me a language exchange, is a meeting between two or more people, for the main purpose of learning another language/helping a person learn a language.
The best way for a language exchange to occur is in person, however it is possible to have a language exchange as a pen-friend/via the Internet. (see the language exchange section of the “meet people online” page, at Sydney-friends.com.
There are many ways to find a language exchange partner, it really depends on where you live. When I lived in Japan, there were places called “International Centres” with noticeboards, where people placed ads for language exchanges. In Sydney, there are less noticeboards for just that purpose, however there are many places online where you can meet a person, to have an in-person language exchange. (see above).
There is varying demand for the language you speak/want to study, the most sought after language to learn is English, so it’s best to use those sites at www.sydney-friends.com/findafriendonline.phtml, there are sites on that page for other languages too, or you could do a particular search in your city for groups of certain langauges. For Sydney, particular language / language exchange sites include:
Japanese: Jams.tv or http://www.japan-guide.com (English is available for both sites)
Korean: hojunara.com (only in Korean at time of writing)
(please let me know in the comments for other languages)
For noticeboards… few people realise the amazing resouces universities have, although, university resources are only available for it’s students/staff it shouldn’t bother anyone if you visited the language centre to view the noticeboards to see if there are any students wanting a language exchange. The last one I visited (whilst a student) in Sydney, had people wanting to learn, English, Japanese, Chinese, French and Spanish.
Well I hope you get the idea, from the above sites and from various places, there are plenty of people looking for a language exchange.
So how to go about a language exchange?
I will only talk about meeting in person here…
de de de deeaaarrnn. (drum roll)… who will this person be? What will they look like? Will they be nice? Will they be helpful? Will they like you? Will you be able to help them?
Don’t worry.. just meet them, for example you may meet the person at a common meeting point in town, then walk to a cafe you both like. (You will have either called the person/have been called by a person from a noticeboard, or met the person online).
Just have a friendly chat when you first meet, get the pronunciation of your names right, recall where you are both from, general chat about the day, until you arrive at your study location. (speak slowly if you are speaking with a person with beginner level English)
At this point, for best results, it’s best to talk about how you want the language exchange to proceed. What has worked best for me is to divide the time of the meeting into two even parts, (eg. 1 hour - 30 minutes each). If you are for example wanting to study Japanese and have only a beginners level competency and your partner is quite fluent at English, you would spend 30 minutes, focussing on Japanese (proabably taught mostly in English, unless you have a skilled teacher that can teach only using Japanese), then 30 minutes only in English where you may help build your partners conversation skills or vocabulary.
Note: If you really feel uncomfortable around the person at the point of meeting, just say that you would like to try a short language exchange as you are a bit busy.. say 15 - 20 minutes each.
What you use for the language exchange is completely up to you, you may like to bring notebooks to write new vocabulary in, bring a dictionary/electronic dictionary, some material in both the language you want to learn and the language that you will teach.
Some of the best language exchanges I have, I only brought an electronic dictionary (so did the partner) and we did either 30mins - 1 hour each, in the particular language we were studying. I found doing role-plays very useful, such as role plays for an interview, or for some situation you would use your newly acquired language.
So there you have it.. your guide to a language exchange.. remember to keep it friendly, and try and respect the study needs of your partner. Sometimes people that are too demanding can be a turn off.. eg.”please meet me for 2 hours every afternoon, and make sure you do your homework that I give you”… On the other extreme, too casual is also a turn off, especially when they have no interest in helping you with your language. Meeting once a week works for me, if you become good friends all the better.
Enjoy your language exchange!
Lindsay
http://www.sydney-friends.com
ps. There are new language exchange sites popping up all the time, here are a few new ones on wordpress:
http://beefluent.wordpress.com/
http://erikspen.wordpress.com/2007/06/14/on-working-with-a-language-exchange-partner/
Meeting people in Sydney - For English Learners
Monday, August 25th, 2008 | Meeting people | No Comments
After teaching ESL in Sydney at various places, I have heard many times students saying they would like to make friends with a native English speaker to practice their English, and being a teacher I couldn’t cater for everyone, so I’d like to offer some advice here.
Where to meet people:
Firstly I’d like to say, there is no one solution meets all needs, as everyone has different tastes. So I’ll write about a variety of places and hopefully some may suit your needs.
At an outing - There are many clubs in Sydney that welcome new members. Such as language exchange clubs (eg. Auspeak), or you could go on a tour (see SydneyFriends tour page), to a great place such as the Hunter Valley or a river cruise. Usually the ones for backpackers are more social, however you could meet someone on an expensive cruise too. If you are on a budget, there are plenty of free outings to go to too, eg. barbecue’s, bushwalks, and beach trips, that some clubs such as the Sydney Japanese Language Group.
At a pub - Pubs can be a social place, or a lonely place, so if you go there, make sure you go with someone you know, or go for a special occasion such as to join in a game of free poker or a pool competition, such as the free ones with cash prizes at Jacksons and the Windsor Hotel every Tuesday nights. Pubs can be a dangerous place too, so be careful whom you place your trust in.
Some language exchange groups meet at pubs, and they can be a fun place to practice your English.
Join a sporting Club - If you like swimming, ask a local pool about training squads, tennis -> ask local clubs about when they have social tennis nights, for most sports though the best way is to just look out for it at a sporting centre.. when you see someone playing the sport you like, ask about how to join it. I did volleyball in Sydney for a few seasons, that was a very fun sport, and the people we very friendly to socialise with.
Join a church - Even if you are not Christian, some churches have free English lessons, such as the Crows Nest bi-lingual English-Japanese church. You may have a bad impression of some churches as a boring place… they don’t have to be, and some have great social circles outside service hours.
Take on some extra study/night course - There are courses popping up all the time, from short day courses on how to do coffee art to very long courses. These are excellent places to meet people as you will find people who may have the same interest as you do. I am currently in the process of making a courses page on my site, until then you could check out some of these:
- Fun fitness courses at Sydney uni.
- General short courses at Sydney Uni.
- Short courses at UNSW
- Short courses at TAFE
Hope you enjoyed reading this first entry about where to meet people in Sydney.
I will continue to write entries about meeting people for English learners and meeting people for other reasons hope you will be back.
-Lindsay
www.sydney-friends.com