Born in Guangzhou, China, I'm currently in the middle of my MBA program in China while coming to MIT Sloan as a visiting fellow exchange student. I was working in IT consulting and project management before. I look forward to meeting interesting people before going back to China in Jan, 2022. I'm keen to learn more about American culture, history and politics and hopefully you're interested in getting to know more about China. It would be awesome to have discussions.
One of my recent instagram posts on a meetup story was featured by couchsurfing and you can find me there @shawnjustme

If you happen to travel in Guangzhou and would like to explore the city, I might be your best traveling partner because:
1. I am a local and I know where you can find quality food with affordable price. Usually I take couchsurfing friends to the restaurants where locals eat. In my view, good restaurants are not necessarily expensive. No matter how much your budget is for food, I can always find you good place to eat. ^_^
2. I speak excellent English and have a good language exchange spirit. I am more than happy to teach you some Mandarin or Cantonese if you want to learn. IELTS overall 7.5 (Listening 8.5 Reading 7 Speaking 7.5 Writing 6)
3. I really enjoy cross-culture communication and organize lots of speech and sharing events here. Ask me about it. I can't wait to listen to your stories and life experience as well!

Note: Even if you have already found a host, if you find my profile interesting, please do not hesitate to send me a msg. I'm happy to hang out with couchsurfer as long as the time slot fits both of us. ^_^

-------------ATTENTION--------------

Please read my profile before you send me a request. I hope that we share something in common or you want to know something about me when you stay at my place. I am a good listener so can't wait to hear your stories as well. I hope you also have an interesting profile and look forward to meeting an interesting soul here.

Born in Guangzhou, I can speak fluent Mandarin, Cantonese and English. Currently I am still having language exchange sessions to improve my English and Japanese.

Work experience: I have four-year experience as a consultant in IT consulting industry and one year experience working as a project manager in a bank. Now I'm working as a community manager in the biggest online language exchange platform.
You can refer to my Linkedin profile if you want to see in details. https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-zhang-26406749/ Feel free to send me a request for connection.

This is a video I made for a previous public speaking contest with the help of my language partner and people I met at the hostel. https://v.qq.com/x/page/r0617ncqz3p.html

My passion:
1. I love sharing my stories and listening to other people's. It's always so inspiring to gain strength from stories and have a new outlook of looking at life. Plus, I organize a local weekly idea exchange event. If you are interested in it, ask me about it. ^_^

2. I love having language exchange sessions with people. I have been doing that off an on for almost 4 years so far, which contributes a lot to my improvement on spoken English.

3. I love cross culture communication. It's always interesting to challenge a stereotypical way of thinking by exploring more about the world especially meeting new people with diversified backgrounds. I'm sure we will have a good time discussing about the cultural differences we've experienced. We can always agree to disagree. ^_^

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I first got to know about this website because one of my language exchange partners recommended this site to me.
1. I sometimes join the local couchsurfing meeting when I have time. It's an amazing gathering where you can not only meet the locals but also the travelers who share impressive stories.

2. In the future, if I travel to a new place, I hope that someone would be willing to host me. I have lived in both the hotels and hostels before. For me, it's not really about the money thing because I believe that couchsurfing with people could be a unique experience the two options can never provide.

3. Although I live in the city, I don't know everything about it. At weekends I would love to spend time hanging out with travelers to explore more of the city.

Interests

My hobbies are: Listening to the music, singing, playing the piano, traveling, swimming, language exchange and public speaking.

• singing
• cooking
• traveling
• music
• piano
• swimming
• language exchange
• story telling
• public speaking

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Avril, Japanese animation theme songs
Movie: Boyhood, butterfly effect
Books: Interpersonal relationship, speech delivery, Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

1. I went to Hainan province as one of the voluntary teachers there helping to build the confidence of the local minority students. I learned how to cook after that.

2. I have overcome my stage fear and now I'm confident to deliver a public speech in English.

3. Some people might feel I'm crazy because I talk to myself in English when I'm on the metro but I believe that this is a very good way for practice.

4. I have met foreign friends who I have only talked to online before. We stayed in the same hostel. We ate, traveled and had fun together for three days.

5. I kept having language exchange sessions off and on for almost 4 years now and I really appreciate it.

6. I gave three speeches in total in about half a year's time because I really felt that I had something to say.

7. I hosted someone and the person couldn't speak English. We kept on using Google translation to communication with each other and that was fun.

8. I hosted someone and I helped him busk in Shenzhen explaining to people what he was doing in China and why he was doing that.

9. A language partner I met three years ago traveled to China and we went to Zhangjiajie together with other friends.

10. I asked for people living in the hostel to support my public speaking competition and I made a video for that.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: I can help you with Mandarin/Cantonese or English.
Share: I can share with you my stories, my work experience and things you want to know about me.
Learn: I want to get to know people with stories and multicultural backgrounds. I want to learn some new languages too if possible.

What I Can Share with Hosts

1. I can share with you my stories and work experience if you are interested in that.
2. I can share with you the local weekly idea exchange event I host.
3. I can tell you about the interesting events in Guangzhou/Shenzhen, such as different language exchange events, which will help you to get to know more people.
4. I can be your language exchange partner if you want to learn Mandarin/Cantonese or English.
5. I can show you around the city if you come here on weekends. ^_^

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Japan, Malaysia, North Korea, Russian Federation, South Korea, Thailand, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, United States