An awesome part about the Alliance program in Shanghai is that they allocate money for weekly Language Tables. Language Table is a time where your Chinese class meets up to eat food and practice Chinese. Our budget is 30 RMB for person which is more than a fair amount for a meal.
For language table, we tend to eat at a Sichuan style Chinese restaurant a lot. Sichuan food is your average, not average Chinese food, but spicy. (Average as in real Chinese food, averages as in not like the Chinese food in the states.) Sichuan food is very flavorful and has lots of garlic and chili peppers. We eat here often because it’s about a 1-minute walk from our dorms, it’s cheap, and it allows us to try many different things. When ordering food in Chinese restaurants, you don’t tend to order just a dish for yourself. Instead, you order a bunch of dishes that end up sitting on a lazy Susan and everyone goes around and pics random things to eat.
To end the excursion, we usually go and get some ice-cream without leftover money.
Apart from the food, the best part about Language Table is that it gives us a chance to get to know our teacher. We’ve talked to a teacher from things such as favorite American movies and TV shows, future plans, family, to why Chinese people love to drink plain hot water.
Even though it’s one of those things that can seem annoying, I honestly look forward to getting some free food with some one of my favorite people in china; my teacher and classmates!
