Our agenda for the day was to meet with some of our strategic partners and prepare for the arrival of our delegation. Our first stop was Beijing Normal University (BNU). Kathy’s relationship with BNU goes back to her dissertation days in 2003 when she was conducting qualitative research on deaf education in China. BNU has been conducting research on Chinese Sign Language (CSL) in the hope to develop a standardized sign language for the country. We met with the Director, Dr. Gu Dingqian to prepare for a conference they are hosting on Tuesday the 19th. Last year our delegation met with Dr. Gu’s team and consulted on sign language development and interpreter education. There is a growing need for interpreter education in China. Currently there are 6 Interpreter Training Programs (ITP) in the whole country, and Dr. Zheng only recommends 2 as being quality programs. Not having qualified interpreters poses lots of barriers for people who are deaf in China. The conference BNU is hosting on the 19this to learn more about deaf education and setting up ITPs. It was a productive meeting and we were able to outline the conference agenda.

 

Fortunately our next meeting was in the same building at BNU just on a different floor. We met with Dr. Hong Chengwen to discuss supporting a follow up conference that will focus on technical signs in STEM education. We hope to bring a few experts from the states this Fall to help facilitate knowledge sharing in this area. The meeting with Dr. Hong was so much fun. He had an electric tea board on his coffee table in his office. He made tea for us and we chatted for about an hour. He then invited us to lunch.

 

We also met with the US Embassy to plan for a forum they are hosting on the evening of the 19th. There already have about 100 people registered to attend. The forum will be have four of our delegates on a panel discussing deaf education and it will be moderated by Joseph Jones. We mostly discussed the use and set up for ASL voice interpreters,  ASL interpreters, Chinese spoken language interpreters and Chinese sign language interpreters. It will definitely be a learning experience for the Embassy.

When we left we walked to Starbucks then took a taxi back to our hotel.
On the trip we saw a motorcycle that a dog sitting on it with the rider. It was quite a sight! We tried to take a picture but just couldn’t get the right angle.
Seeing animals in odd places has been a frequent occurrence in the last few days. We’ve seen dogs on rooftops, cats on rooftops, and birds tied to front doors.