Let's Speak Mandarin!

This is the name that Grace said I should give to the group I am trying to form. I'm mainly trying to form it in JP I will settle on Chinatown if JP becomes too difficult. The plan is to have a bunch of people get together, speak Mandarin for a while, speak English for a while and also make it accessible to young children as well have a writing element to it. I figure the easiest way to do that is to have paper and crayons there.

At the tot lot two parents who are probably ABC and Mandarin speakers and not married to each other happened to be having a conversation over the fence and me and Grace were sitting on the bench. So I may have been eavesdropping but I was also literally between them as they were talking about ways to try and get there kids to continue to speak Mandarin or get their spouses to learn Mandarin etc etc.

Well I gave them my card and said we should get together.

Then this morning while walking to school I walked by three old people speaking Mandarin. I was sort of in a rush, but I stopped and made my pitch and handed out cards anyway. The older man happened to speak English and one of the old ladies happened to have lived in Canton (of wait I guess I should spell it Guangdong) for a bit and was able to understand some of my Mandarin (lol!)

Anyway. the cards were handed out. They were not as enthused because the two women spoke no English at all. The old man said it was a good idea, just like English Corner, which they have in China. And so I am starting a Mandarin corner in the U.S. (I hadn't heard of English Corner.)

Anyway I went on saying, "my Mandarin is crap so I"

"I know that." he said

"uhh so I want to improve it and mostly get my kids to learn it."

He also said it might be hard to get enough people who are both interested and who have the time.
But the truth is we don't need that many people. A small group will serve it's purpose I think. What we need more than anything, is Native Mandarin speakers who need a place to practice English. There's plenty of Americans who value learning Mandarin, or at least value their kids learning Mandarin. At least value it enough to go to a free group where you can also just socialize.