I am a Chinse too.

What is toastmaster

Toastmasters is public speaking training, as well as real life social networking.

English corner, however I found there are more Chinese than English speakers there usually.

Couchsurfing, host some travellers does help me know more about the language and different culture/ costom

Watch movie, try without subtitles but sometimes I have the feeling like eating a meal, I find it is yummy and I finish my meal however I am not so sure what exactly I just ate.

Read books, I find it is hard for me to keep reading English novel. I found so many new words which made me very confused. Any good book ppl please recommend me :)

Talk to English speaker, I think this might be the best way to improve English but sometime it just not easy to find someone to practice.

Lucy: depending on your English ability, you might try reading Ernest Hemingway's short stories - Hemingway was a very fine writer whose art did not depend on a complicated vocabulary or on complicated sentences. I used to assign his stories - some, very fine ones are very short - in English classes I taught.

@Lucy
www.tingvoa.com/bookworm is a good website

There is a simple reason why there are more Chinese people than foreign people at English corners. The Chinese get more out of the exchange.
Personally, I get tired of answering the same questions. Where are you from? Do you like China? What is your favorite food? Etc. etc.
People who organize English corners should learn to plan them. Planning does not include asking foreign guests to prepare something, or put on some performance. Otherwise it becomes just a free English lesson. Planning should include thinking about and meeting the needs of all guests.

Alien—thank you,I will have a look at his book:)
Liumingke—thank you, I do have some of these books however I never really spend much time on them. hopefully I could pick them up again soon.

tiger—yeah I agree with your words. I used to attend English corner when I was in uni and I found the problems for Chinese were: we are quite shy to start a real conversation, and most of the ppl just repeat the same questions like where are u from, what is your name, do you like China,etc. These are the only things they could think about at the moment. I can totally understand why the foreigners find it is not interesting and I also understand why Chinese can't make the converstaion more interesting..I guess another thing is many Chinese people's life is quite boring and 'ordianory',they do not have that much topics to talk about.

That is a good point that the planner should organize them wisely,I think should really have some interesting topics each time and then all the visitors could benifit from learning different thoughts from different people. If I have chance to held an English corner I should make it better :D

English corners don't work because you have a bunch of people with different level of english. Once you break them up according to the level then you go on to solve the other problems.

Why should the Chinese try to please foreigners? It's an equal exchange of language, and the only people who should act hospitably are the organizers, regardless of where they come from. While you're at it, why don't you also including a free foot massage and complimentary glass of champagne only to foreigners who attend those language exchange classes?

The life of Chinese people is boring? Do you think that the lives of all foreigners is action-packed or similar to the lives of actors from Gossip Girl or the Big Bang Theory? Seriously, wake up and stop acting that submissive at the sight of every foreigner. There's a big difference between being welcoming and being obsequious.