Immigrant Communities Abroad + Choosing a Tutor
Tapping into the global community where you live.
This Week on Rae’s Tea
Upgraded my desk set up a bit & got my first mechanical keyboard!
Mentorship and mastercall schedule re-opened! If you’re interested in coaching or support from me, check out my links.
In the works: New Language Dashboard, Energy Management Dashboard & Podcast…
Waagwaan Frennies 🌍✨
This weekend I spent the weekend in Stockholm to attend a Swedish crayfish party organised by the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce Junior Chapter in Sweden (@tccsjc)—another unique experience of cultures melting together!
We went on a boat and ate seafood to live music, all Swedish dance band style, of course. One of my favourite pillars of white-culture is the ability to get cringey on a boat and dance randomly to dansband or country. Top-tier ;)
I made friends with a little Swedish-Taiwanese princess, and we chatted fluently in three languages (English, Mandarin and Swedish). She was so impressive, three languages at 3 years old!
Events like this one are great ways to network and to expand you inner-circle in a new country. Often when we start over or move half way across the world, we deprioritise community and underestimate its power.
Sweden and other Northern countries in particular can be a hard places to make friends and build community. People are often reserved and stay in circles they’ve built from young, friend groups you do enter may keep you at arms length and companies largely hire from referrals. So how *do* you find you space?
It may seem a little counter-intuitive, but finding people who relate to this experience and who already will feel some familiarity with you first can help you to continue to widen that circle.
Not only will they be happy to become friends, it’s likely that since they understand your situation they will make the effort to help you find links outside of the organisation as well.
Plus organisations like this one often offer much more than the community space or emotional support.
Job search assistance
Help with finding housing and child care
Language classes and cultural orientation programs
Information Government Programmes/Initiatives
Healthcare resources
Legal aid
Mental health support
Do you have experience with this kind of event/organisation? I’ve now participated in 3-5 of these around the world! 10/10 do recommend and of course, not sponsored :)
Language Update: Decided on My Mandarin Teacher
Last week I told you all that I’m jumping back into serious study. I still have not found the perfect time balance, but I have chosen my Chinese teacher for the foreseeable future.
Here were my requirements:
Has a casual and responsive teaching style (adaptable, dynamic)
Teaches entirely in Mandarin and doesn’t feel tempted to over explain in English.
Interested in discussing and diving into social issues, politics and spirituality
Teaches Traditional Chinese characters / Taiwanese mandarin (This wasn’t a deal breaker for me but would be considered a plus based on my goals)
Is open to the possibility of meeting and chilling with students
..and I’ve found my perfect match! I’m planning to do 1 long lesson and one short lesson per week with my new tutor and focus on developing the conversation topics I most often speak about and refine my way of presenting the information to build confidence.
On my own, I’ll be working through textbooks and doing a lot of sentence building exercises.
Thanks for reading fren!
I’m back from a long newsletter break. My newsletter style is unique and I’m still figuring out what kind of content is most engaging and interesting for you. If you have time, feedback and requests are always welcome :)