On May 10, 2011, I presented a talk entitled “Holding Intercultural, International, Interdisciplinary Dialogues” to the Journalism Department at Northwest University, in Xi’an, China. Prof. YANG Lichuan, Dean of School of Journalism and Communication, was a most gracious host.
This was the first time I worked with a faculty member who served as simultaneous interpreter, Dr. ZHANG Yuwen of the Journalism Department.
We only had an hour to review the key vocabulary in my powerpoint, but she did a great job of helping ensure that all of the audience members would understand what I was saying.
In addition to arranging for simultaneous interpretation during the talk, Dean Yang gave me two graduate students, LI Xing and WU Yue, to serve as guides and translators for my entire stay, as well as assigning a car and driver (thanks to XIE Ping for getting us safely through traffic that is nearly as difficult as Shanghai’s). They accompanied my husband and me from our arrival at the airport to our departure. They made sure we had the opportunity to taste many local specialties at meals, and took us to multiple museums and local sites, including especially the terracotta warriors, the Shaanxi history museum, the calligraphy museum, and Xi’an’s Bell Tower. We now have many beautiful photographs to remind us of our visit.
On this trip to China I was invited to present at Wuhan University, but simply couldn’t fit another city into the itinerary. So I was especially pleased that Dr. LI Yang, of the Department of Journalism and Communication at Wuhan University, was able to make time come to my talk, and to join us at dinner afterwards, along with Dr. Zhang. I look forward to maintaining connections with both of them.
Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz
Director, Center for Intercultural Dialogue
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 