Hello fans and friends! It’s time for the Friday Five!

This week, I had the great privilege of chatting with Eileen Li, my old friend and fellow blogger. Eileen was one of the cool people who took me out for hot pot during my visit to Shanghai and she is, hands down, one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. It’s cases like this where I wish my format was longer than just the five questions!

Let’s dive in, shall we?

FRANK: How many languages do you speak, and what’s your native tongue?

EILEEN: My native tongue is Tagalog (since I’m from the Philippines) but I speak English quite fluently too. I also speak Hokkien (a Chinese dialect - 福建 华) when I’m around family and relatives. I think my Mandarin is rather mediocre still but I am improving everyday. I must admit though that back home, I do tend mix Tagalog, English, and Hokkien (and now, even Mandarin) quite a lot in normal conversations. It sounds rather complicated but believe me it’s not!

FRANK: What do you do for ChinesePod?

EILEEN: I primarily handle ChinesePod’s customer service department. My day to day operations include going around the site everyday to make sure everything’s working well, reading everyone’s comments (and I do mean, each and every one!) on the lessons, blogs, forums and ChinesePod emails and making sure the right people respond to them. I’m also the go-to person when it comes to relaying feedback to the team! and in some occasion, I’ve been known to do tech support and marketing as well - it all depends on the day really!

FRANK: Is there any plan to bring you onto the Saturday Show once Colleen has (*sniff*) left us?*

EILEEN: I think Colleen’s the best AND I don’t think anyone could really replace her! With that said, I don’t think I’ll be coming on to the show anytime soon. I’ll just come off like an uncool Colleen-wannabe! haha… But seriously, though I would love to be part of it, I don’t think I’m cut out to be in front of the mic; I’m not interesting enough to be a personality on the show!

FRANK: Next time I’m in Shanghai, what’s the one place I cannot miss? (I’ve already been to Tai Kang Lu and Aric’s apartment, so think hard. They’re hard to beat!)

EILEEN: Hmmmm…. let me think! Ah, you haven’t experienced the real Shanghai shopping scene yet until you’ve been to Chi Pu Lu! Now that’s one of the craziest place I’ve been to in a long while - going there is a definitely a memorable experience and I’ve been there 4 times already!

And oh, there a hole in the wall place too near Jiao Tong University that has some killer chicken wings and drumsticks too for just 1.50 and 2 RMB each! It’s damn cheap and they deliver too - the perfect combination for any Shanghai dweller like me!

FRANK: How about some juicy office gossip? (If there is no juicy gossip, please feel free to fabricate some. I have an audience to entertain here.)

EILEEN: I’m not good at making up stuff unfortunately! I’m totally lame…

* * *

I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree with that last comment, dear. You rock. You rock hard.

As for the rest of you, thanks again for all your comments and suggestions. Make sure to listen to the Saturday Show tomorrow for a little something extra from yours truly.

Have a great weekend, everybody!