I’ve often heard my friend mention to their partner that they want to do something, or go out with a ‘classmate’ 同学， which could basically mean an old classmate, an ex, a hot girl/guy…pretty much anyone and therefore always leads to a line of interrogation for the opposite partner.

For that I think 同学 has to be my favourite vague word!!

Yes, but in this case you should remove the 果, it is inconsistent between pinyin and characters.

for example

man:你想要跟我”那個”嗎?(abnormal tone)
do you want to make love with me?

woman:才不要!
definitely no!!!

conclusion:
as you said,”那個” is a vague word,hence you should use it carefully. For the example used in the article
“他说他要请我吃饭， 然后带我去… 那个，那个，那个… 新的博物馆。”

if you said like this
“他说他要请我吃饭， 然后带我去… 那个，那个”
which means “after dinner and then you two will go making love.”

Therefore,I sincerely suggest you should use the word “什麼”(she me) which means “what”, so you could say like this
他说他要请我吃饭， 然后带我去什麼… 新的博物馆。

or choose to repeat the lastest word
“然后带我去?….去?….去?…. 新的博物馆。”
(and then take me to go…go…go..the new museum. )

so do u get 我說的”那個”意思了嗎?

In Tianjin it’s hard to tell motives when it comes to renting apartments to foreigners. Depending on the district, the registration rules can make foreigners an extra hassle, and depending on how scrupulous the authorities are, it can be extra fees for the landlord (many are pseudo-legally subletting their work unit apartments). Some landlords seek out foreign tenants on purpose because they think we’ll take better care of the place. But of course there’re some just don’t want to bother with the language and culture barrier hassles of a foreign tenant.

I’ll go update my links.

P.S. I’ve moved my blog to Blogger since WordPress is banned in China (or so I’ve been told). Check out http://chitchatchinese.blogspot.com/ for the follow up to this list.

We’d only been studying for less than three months, and we were apartment hunting (we were desperate to get out of the foreign ghetto apt. complex that housed most of our NGO’s people and local language students, and into a normal Chinese neighbourhood). I met a landlord to see their place, and then arranged to come back the next night with my wife. We showed up the next night, but the landlord had just sent some underling to tell us, “他有事”。 Our Chinese friends said it was because he didn’t want the hassle of renting to foreigners (which can be extra hassle). Seeing how he could so effortlessly get out of the situation with a simple “有事” was my first introduction to that whole genre of Chinese noncommittal/conveniently vague communication.

Love the blog. Just found it.
You’re missing the pinyin “guo” after “ru” in the zheyang sentence about being one’s friend.
Cheers