Lecture

250 students and teachers filed in to listen to my Special Education in America lecture. A student translator and I struggled to match the Chinese and English scripts so my words could be translated appropriately. She frantically shuffled through the papers and I was trying to find a USB port for the PowerPoint presentation.

As the lecture started I realized that there was no lectern, no place to put my papers, and the microphone was too low. I asked the audience if anyone would lend me their books to help prop the microphone up. 10 books materialized and I began speaking. The students had trouble understanding me because I spoke fast and used many works specific to Special Education, but the translation cleared up most of the problems.

Afterwards the students asked questions for about 20 minutes. Overall it was rather uneventful, though I did get a chance to communicate the idea that I want to learn more about Special Education in China.