This event recap was written by Project Pengyou 2016 Summer intern, David Ferguson.

On June 25, Project Pengyou teamed up with local magazine The Beijinger and other local organizations to host a mixer at Home Plate BBQ in Sanlitun that brought together representatives from language schools and programs around Beijing. It concluded a month-long campaign to promote Mandarin study by various local organizations.  The campaign targeted people who live in China and aren’t attending school, but still want to find ways to learn Mandarin.

The mixer gathered about 150 laowai (老外, foreigner) on a sunny June Saturday.  It was great to see so many people living in Beijing looking for ways to improve their Mandarin skills and engage more deeply with Chinese society. As supporters of cultural exchange and Mandarin learning, we were happy to share our own stories with attendees and hear a few of theirs as well.

Schools and programs at the mixer included:

• The Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies (IUP)
• That’s Mandarin
• Beijing Information Technology College
• Berlitz Mandarin
• SpeakEasy
• Shuoba
• Mandarin House
• Keats School
• Ideal Mandarin
• Hutong School
• Beijing International Chinese College
• The Chairman’s Bao

Thank You

We’d like to extend our gratitude to The Beijinger for reaching out to us and inviting us to be event sponsors as well as all the other organizations promoting Mandarin month (BritCham, BenCham, MexCham, Ninchanese, and Pleco)!

We’re also thankful for our team of Project Pengyou summer interns! This was the first event hosted with the current group, and we were happy that they were able to get a glimpse of opportunities for Mandarin study in Beijing. It was also a special treat to see former Pengyou intern, Francis Miller, who is now working in Beijing at AIC, an educational consulting firm.

We were thrilled to be a part of the first Mandarin Month in Beijing, and we hope to see more initiatives like this in the future!