Building Scalable Culture in a Language-Exchange Meetup

The Melbourne Chinese Language & Culture Meetup Group

In the late 2000s, I loved watching Jacky Chan's movies so much that I decided to learn Chinese. Now back then, there weren't many opportunities to practice speaking Chinese. Italki and Duolingo are currently excellent platforms, but back then, they didn't exist or were in the early stages. If you wanted to practise speaking a foreign language outside of an expensive classroom, you had to get out there. So I joined a small Chinese-Australian social group and eventually became the organiser. Over 8 years, there have been nearly 400 language-exchange meetups, and the group has grown from a few hundred members to around 4000.

While the meetup is going strong with regular members, there were many times in the beginning when no one turned up for months in a row. Or member numbers started to dwindle so low that I thought the meetup wouldn't survive. If you've ever tried building a social meetup group, you'll know how challenging it is. Will people show up? Will people enjoy it? Will people return? Finally, how do you build a culture of friendliness and support, and one that can outlast you?

Always be there

It can be daunting for a new person to join a meetup, especially for small social groups that can quickly form and disappear. The most important and straightforward action you can do as an organiser is ensuring you turn up on time.

If someone new arrives and finds no one there, they can quickly leave and never return. From the person's perspective, they could have easily been doing something else on the weekend or have spent a long time travelling to attend. So they can feel annoyed and frustrated if the event isn't on as planned, as they have wasted their time.

Also, it can be a very nervous experience. The new person won't know who to talk to, what to talk about or how the language exchange works. So being a friendly face to welcome them always makes their first day more enjoyable.

For these reasons, I always made the weekly meetup. The only times I wasn't there were when I was on holiday overseas or it was Christmas day. And even then, I always gave early notice or found someone to welcome the members. For all other occasions, it didn't matter if I was feeling tired or the weather was super hot or pouring rain. I made sure I was there. If someone else was going to make an effort to join, then there's no reason I shouldn't.

Once the meetup was reliably running at the same time and place each week and had a host to welcome everyone, people felt more comfortable joining. Gradually, the meetup got its first few members. This quickly grew to 5 members, then 10, and now we had a small social group of like-minded people.

But how do you make members feel engaged, to stay and return?

It's all about the people

A meetup is all about the people. Without people, there is no meetup. So it's essential to understand why people are joining, what they are looking to get out of it and ensure they feel it's worth their effort to commute and spend time there.

For the language exchange meetup, people come to practice speaking a foreign language with native speakers in a safe and supportive environment. In addition, they are looking to meet others that share a common interest in Chinese-English cultural exchange and are generally motivated to improve their language ability. As the organise, it's your job to create this environment.

To help build this, I would facilitate the event in three ways:

• Help people to feel comfortable speaking in their foreign language
• Give people the opportunity to speak in their foreign language
• Ensure everyone has equal time to speak in their foreign language

Each meetup involved me going to each table to see if everyone was OK. Was there anyone who didn't have a language exchange partner, and if so, I would help them find someone to practice with. Were there any tables that weren't speaking equal time Chinese and English? If so, I would encourage more regular swapping of languages. And finally, if anyone was a bit shy to talk, I would extra spend time with them. I would try to gauge their English or Chinese ability and interest. And then only use words they understood and topics they had enough thoughts on to get a conversation flowing and boost their confidence in speaking.

However, making sure everyone has a chance to speak and learn can be challenging as the numbers grow. So how do you build a large social group that is just as friendly and supportive as when it had 10 members?

Be involved

When a small community does not yet have regular members, the culture that forms will stem directly from the organiser's behaviours and values. So as the organiser, don't just create a meetup and not join. Or be the doorkeeper that only takes down names but has no interest or understanding in the subject. Instead, be involved in the meetup as an active member. If you are trying to build a culture of people passionate about studying the Chinese language and its culture, and are friendly and supportive, then you need to exhibit those traits.

I'm Cambodian-Australian and have spent nearly all my life in Australia, so I speak native English. But I don't have a Chinese background. When I first started the language exchanges, my Chinese level was elementary. I could barely introduce myself in Chinese, let alone hold a long conversation. So for the first 2 years of the meetup, I did everything I could to improve my Chinese. This included about 3-4hrs studies a day and involved studying Chinese textbooks, reviewing flashcards, enrolling in classes, watching Chinese TV shows and even committing myself to pass the HSK Chinese Language Proficiency Exam. By the second year, I not only could hold a conversation in Chinese but also support others with their Chinese studies.

A good note about culture is that it's scalable. The people I helped and studied with also helped others with their studies. This behaviour then attracted more like-minded people, which helped establish the culture of learning, friendliness and supportiveness it has today.

A Successful Meetup

I would like to say that the meetup was successful. Not because of the number of members, as there are much larger social groups. But because of the incredible personal growth people made in their Chinese and English language abilities.

Throughout the years, I've seen people who knew zero Chinese but can now watch and understand Chinese TV shows. Others who had treated it only as a hobby but now used it in their jobs and even became translators. People who found time in their full-time job to pass the challenging HSK Chinese Language Proficiency exams. And native Chinese who scored high on their English IELTS exams and found great careers in Australia.

After 8 years, I have since stepped down, and we have a fantastic new organiser. But, even though many faces have come and gone, the meetup's friendly and supportive culture is just as alive now as it was at the beginning. And I do hope it can continue for another 8 years.

As the meetup organiser, you are the rock that holds the group together. The small actions like always being there on time, actively learning and genuinely facilitating the meetups help build a culture of learning, trust and support. So while my story is for a language exchange, it can be for any other social club, such as a coding meetup, an AWS meetup, or even within your organisation.

The Melbourne Chinese Language & Culture Meetup Group on meetup.com

Fun fact: Jacky Chan is from Hong Kong, and his movies are in native Cantonese (广东话), not Mandarin (普通话). It wasn't until I was about 1 year into learning Chinese Mandarin (普通话) that I realised I was learning the wrong dialect. Still, by then, I had already enjoyed Mandarin so much that I just continued.