We're not quite a year in, but the end of the winter break seems like an appropriate time to take stock of what's been achieved since we kicked things off in the spring of 2018, and to announce some changes as we move forward...
What began as a fairly impulsive decision to strike out from some of the more unsavoury and negative elements of the expat community here quickly developed into a regular meetup attended by foreigners and locals alike. Weekly attendances rose to around 30 and the busiest events saw more than 40 people turn up - our groupchat membership topped 100! Due to the somewhat unexpected popularity of these events, we branched out into organising BBQs, KTV nights, CS days out and, more recently, overnight trips.
This all culminated in the first Liuzhou Meet & Learn Christmas Party, which you can read more about here. This event was hugely oversubscribed, and really well received. It's provided the impetus to continue with what we're doing and make things bigger and better next year.
Of course, we haven't gotten everything right and this has very much been a learning experience for everyone involved. A concern throughout has been that the group might resemble an 英语角 'English Corner' or 英语沙龙 'English Salon', a kind of event that's prevalent throughout China, whereby people meet up to practice speaking English. Famously used by unscrupulous locals to make money, and slimy expats to hit on local girls, it's something we definitely don't want to emulate.
So, as things move onwards and upwards, and to better reflect the social aspect of the group, the Chinese year of the pig will see a new name and a new platform. We want to redirect the focus away from language learning, as successfully fostering better relationships between the local and expat communities will give members a more natural environment for language practice anyway. So, from this point forward, we'll be known as: "Liuzhou Social / 柳州圈" and we're starting a new WeChat Subscription Account to make sure our Chinese members can also view blog posts about the group.
We've also got lots more things planned, from a special event to welcome people back from the New Year holiday, to bigger overnight trips, as well as continuing with the regular meetups. If you're a local, or coming to Liuzhou to live, work or simply visit, we'd love for you to get involved - please get in touch via email. And, in other exciting news, this week will see the opening of our own English training school; we look forward to welcoming enthusiastic teachers into our community so, if you're interested, please send us a message.
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