Practice Chinese in Vancouver with Native Speakers Online
Richmond, Chinatown, UBC... Vancouver has Mandarin and Cantonese everywhere but rain and distance kill meetups. Practice by video instead.
Create your free accountNo card needed. Exchanges between members are always free.
Vancouver has one of the biggest Chinese-speaking populations in North America, but it's split between Cantonese in Chinatown around Pender Street and Mandarin in Richmond along No. 3 Road and Aberdeen Centre. Add UBC and SFU students taking Mandarin for their degree, professionals working with clients in Shenzhen or Shanghai, and people with family in Richmond who want to actually understand their in-laws, and you get a lot of different reasons to want practice, all needing something slightly different.
The problem is logistics, not motivation. Richmond to Commercial Drive is a 45-minute Canada Line ride plus a bus, and nobody wants to do that after work for a coffee chat that might get rained out anyway. Meetup groups at Waves Coffee or the library conversation circles are real but they run on a fixed schedule, usually one evening a week, and if you're free at a different time you're out of luck until next week.
Doing it by video removes the two things that actually break Vancouver meetups: the commute and the weather. You get thirty minutes in Chinese and thirty minutes in English with someone who's actually motivated to show up, on a schedule that works whether you're in Yaletown, Burnaby, or on the North Shore.
Words you will actually hear
| Here | Elsewhere | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| the Drive | Commercial Drive | East Vancouver neighborhood, common meeting point for language groups |
| Aberdeen | Aberdeen Centre | the mall in Richmond that's practically the social hub of the Mandarin-speaking community |
| No. 3 Road | Richmond's main commercial strip | shorthand for the area with the highest concentration of Chinese businesses and speakers in the region |
| the Canada Line | SkyTrain to Richmond/YVR | the train most people take to get between downtown and the Mandarin-speaking side of the city |
| raincheck | postpone | what happens to half the in-person meetups scheduled between October and April |
| Van | Vancouver | how locals shorten the city name in casual conversation |
| the Skytrain's down again | transit delay | common excuse for missing an in-person exchange, especially on the Expo or Millennium lines |
| toque | winter hat | small talk staple once the weather turns, good icebreaker vocabulary |
| PST evenings | Pacific time after 6pm | the window most people here are actually free to practice, factor this in if your partner is in mainland China |
Classes coming up
Times in your own time zone. This list changes every day.
Exchanges looking for a partner
How it works here
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Sign up and say your level
Two minutes. If you do not know your level, we place you in the first class.
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Pick a class or an exchange
Classes are led by a native teacher. An exchange is with another member: half the time in their language, half in yours.
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Join by video, nothing to install
From your phone or your computer. If you cannot make it, cancel and get your place back.
Questions about this
What time do people usually connect for these sessions?
Most Vancouver members are free weekday evenings after 6pm Pacific, once work and the commute are done. If you're pairing with someone in China, that also lines up better with their late morning or early afternoon the next day, so mornings here can work too.
Do I need to meet the other person in person first?
No. Everything runs over video, which is exactly what solves the problem of Richmond-to-downtown distances or one of you being on the North Shore. You just log in at the agreed time.
What level of Chinese do I need to start?
Any level works if you're doing one-on-one exchanges, since your partner adjusts to you and you do the same for their English. For the small group classes with a native teacher, you'll be placed with people at a similar level so the pace makes sense.
How much does it cost?
Group classes with a native teacher and one-on-one exchanges are priced separately, and you can check current rates on the pricing page. The exchanges themselves are between members, so there's no extra charge per session beyond your membership.
Keep looking around
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