hello, in many languages
a language exchange in Chicago: one room, a name tag with the language you're learning, and ~80 strangers finding out how much they can already say.
i want to help people connect, and i believe language is the best way to do it.
250
at vol 005, the night market
~80
per night, vols 1 to 4
350
on the email list
005
vols poured
the story, one untranslatable word at a time.
[01]
/yuán fèn/ · mandarin · noun
the quiet pull of fate that brings strangers into each other's lives. you don't find it, you meet it.
i want to help people connect, and i believe language is the best way to do it. you can't small-talk in a language you're learning. you reach for words, you laugh at the misses, you actually listen. i haven't found a faster way to turn strangers into friends.
[02]
/rén qíng wèi/ · mandarin · noun
literally 'the flavor of human feeling': the warmth people leave behind in a room.
the format is almost nothing: a bar, a marker, a name tag with your name and the language you're learning. the room sorts itself: Spanish in the corner booth, Korean by the bar, Mandarin over a mahjong table. there's no curriculum, no levels, no app, just enough structure that nobody gets stuck standing alone.
[03]
/jeong/ · korean · noun
the bond that grows between people who keep showing up for each other: deeper than affection, slower than love.
vol 1 filled a pub in May. vol 2 packed a bigger room a month later. by July, vol 5 took over a whole food hall with 250 people. 350 on the email list, and it grew on pure word of mouth: people bringing the friend they said they'd bring. zero dollars of marketing.
[04]
/i·chi·go i·chi·e/ · japanese · phrase
'one time, one meeting': this room, these people, tonight, will never assemble exactly this way again.
almost nobody in the room is fluent, and that's fine. trying out loud is the whole event, and next month is always on the calendar. the email list gets the date first.
[05]
/rè nao/ · mandarin · adjective
literally 'hot and noisy': the happy roar of a crowded place, the exact opposite of lonely.
vol 5 left the bar behind. we partnered with Gangnam Market to turn their food hall into a summer night market: a paper passport at the door, stamp stations for Korea, Japan and China, calligraphy you keep, mahjong you learn, hanbok you try on. free to walk in, loud in three languages.
everything it takes to run: a marker, name tags and a bar.
the room, on video, shot by the people in it.
▶ 30Kpracticing Korean at vol 1, part 1
▶ 22.6KChicago has so many people learning languages
▶ 18.8Kthe night market announcement: passports, stamps, three countries
▶ 13.4Kthe announcement that started it: vol 1, Wicker Park
▶ 10.9KChicago's largest East Asian language exchange, night market style
▶ 9.9Kan idea in May, a fifth exchange by July
▶ 8.8Kpov: practicing Chinese at the largest exchange in Chicago
▶ 8.6Kguess this word in Korean
vols 001 and 002, shot on the same camera that covers everything i host. big groups having fun win.
vol 005, with Gangnam Market: one Friday in July, one food hall, a passport of stamps across Korea, Japan and China.
next
the next vol is loading.
the email list gets the date first. 350 people are already on it.