Excuse me . Do you study Chinese at the university here ?
neutral
user
Yes , I do . But my characters are very bad .
neutral
assistant
It takes a long time to learn Chinese writing .
neutral
user
Are you Chinese ?
neutral
assistant
Yes , I am . I am from Taiwan . I came here to study political science .
neutral
user
How do you like it ?
neutral
assistant
I like it so far . But my English still needs work .
neutral
user
I want to study Mandarin and international relations .
neutral
assistant
Does the Chinese department here teach regular characters or simplified characters ?
neutral
user
They teach regular characters .
neutral
assistant
I see . I'm from Taiwan , so I know regular characters better than simplified .
neutral
user
You just said your English needs work , yes ?
neutral
assistant
Yes , that's true . Especially my writing . I think my papers aren't good enough . I make too many grammatical mistakes .
neutral
user
Well , I am very serious about learning Chinese.But for me the hard part now is pronunciation.You have the four tones in Chinese . It is very hard . Maybe , if you have time , maybe we could do a language exchange .
neutral
assistant
You mean you and I ?
neutral
user
Yes , why not ? I mean , if you come to this cafe often , maybe we could meet here and practice Chinese and English .
neutral
assistant
That sounds like a good idea . How often would you like to do it ?
neutral
user
Let's see ... My schedule right now is quite busy.But I think I could spend 90 minutes a week in language exchange .
neutral
assistant
How would we manage it though ? How would we spend the 90 minutes ?
neutral
user
First , we could spend 45 minutes working on your English writing.If you want , I could help you edit your papers.Or we could do English conversation . Whatever you want.And then the next 45 minutes you would help me with my Chinese .
neutral
assistant
Would I help you with writing ?
neutral
user
No . For me right now , the important thing is spoken Chinese . I need practice . So you could tutor me in speaking.We could use my textbook , and you could ask me questions.Then you could correct my mistakes .
neutral
assistant
I think it sounds like a good system . But when is it convenient to meet ?
neutral
user
Well , today is Monday.Actually , for me Monday at this time would be the best . I am free from now until 11
neutral
assistant
Me too . In fact , I'm free until 1
neutral
user
So if you want to meet at 10
neutral
assistant
It sounds good . I will bring the papers I'm working on .
neutral
user
And I will bring my textbook and a tape recorder . I would like to record some things so I can practice on my own .
neutral
assistant
Let me give you my phone number .
neutral
user
Sure . I'll give you mine too . Then we can call if we have to cancel for some reason .
neutral
assistant