Chatting-type of websites - are there any?

alyth

I use this website a lot, mainly to read but occasionally post, but I wonder whether anyone knows of any sort of chatting-type of sites? I'm an English teacher in deep and darkest China, where I'm the only westerner within a six hour radius (!) and I get fairly isolated at times, with only my laptop as a link to the outside world.

I belong to some panda forums and I use facebook, mainly as a source for news, but I wondered whether anyone knew of sites that you can chat on, a sort of hey, how is your day sort of thing. Hobbies are thin on the ground here, there are no gyms, no shops to buy wool or crafting-sort of things, I am learning mandarin but over the next couple of weeks the temperature will drop to around minus 5/6 and won't rise again until April (so I'm told) and it would be nice if I could have a sort of virtual pen-friend type of site to post on.

I'm also single, 40-odd and have no family but this was the only board on this site I could think of as the best place to post as I remember previous postings asking for pen pals.

Any advice or help would be appreciated as it's going to be a long 4 months until I can leave here and get to a city!

penaltychargenotice

I am not sure whether you are male or female but the Mumsnet website usually has lots going on and they have an expat's section amongst a host of other stuff.

alyth

penaltychargenotice wrote: »

I am not sure whether you are male or female but the Mumsnet website usually has lots going on and they have an expat's section amongst a host of other stuff.

sorry I should have said that I am female - is mumsnet not only for parents - I've never even looked at the site, only heard of it, but I will have a look, thank you for that suggestion.

alleycat`

Not sure how much it is used anymore but 10/15 years ago IRC (internet relay chat) was designed exactly for what you describe.

It might well have been killed off by forums and facebook and the like but it's worth looking into.

Dunroamin

You may have already come across these sort of forums but they could be useful.

http://www.tefl.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=16

http://www.expatforum.com/expats/china-expat-forum-expats-living-china/

alyth

Dunroamin wrote: »

You may have already come across these sort of forums but they could be useful.

http://www.tefl.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=16

http://www.expatforum.com/expats/china-expat-forum-expats-living-china/

expatforum is how I found out I was the only westerner within 6 hours of Xi'an - but I never thought of using it as a chat sort of site, so thank you for that. I belong to every possible TEFL website and forum there is, and use them a lot as well. I'm just feeling horribly isolated as it's hit me that it's minus 3 tonight and it doesn't get about minus anything until April next year!

hazyjo

Are there any decent chatrooms still going? When msn dropped all theirs (or charged, or went to USA or whatever - I forget), there was nothing comparable IMO!

With me, it's a case of been there done that, wouldn't do it again - BUT it kept me sane for a number of months after my husband left, and it's something I continued doing for several years afterwards.

Used to look so forward to sitting down with all my 'stuff' around me while chatting with people, some of whom became lifelong friends.

Jx

tayforth

Hi alyth, I remember you from either my thread or someone else's - you hadn't gone to China at that stage. How are you getting on?

Mumsnet isn't just for mums - I don't use it, but one of my friends does. There was a hilarious thread a week or so ago that's done the rounds of FB and Twitter, if you want a link I'll try to find it. Mind, if you've seen it, you'll know what I'm talking about! :rotfl:

Aside from that, there are lots of daily chat threads on MSE (especially on the Old Style board).

Um... that's all I know of!

Bazey

ICQ used to be quite good back in the day, not sure what it's like these days.

indsty

In case you haven't already found it, the ever helpful https://www.chinese-forums.com is not a chat site itself but has a vast range of participants from all over China. Someone may know of possibilities in your area.

violettasomerset

notthetalk is a good general chatroom. It was originally part of The Guardian newspaper's website but when it was closed down there, some people started it up separately. Given its original source, it's obviously slightly leftie, but has various topics about news, tv, film, advice, sports etc, so isn't focused around one area of interest, but some topics do move quicker than others. There certainly used to be people living in China who posted on it.