Talk, talk, talk!

-
And this week it was my turn to give a talk.
Chatting with Raul, the Head of the Department of Linguistics, he thought it would be interesting for me to share with the Department some of the experiences in policy making in Buenos Aires. In particular, the example of the Argentine-Chinese bilingual school seemed particularly appropriate.
So, I put together a little abstract, sent him my short biodata and came up with a punchy title "Educational Language Policy from the Trenches: The case of the Argentine-Chinese Dual Language School in Buenos Aires".
A couple of days after, as I came out of a seminar room, this poster was pasted almost on every noticeboard in the department, with my laughing face looking straight at me! It was a bit spooky! Ha ha!So, on the appointed day, I went along to the room where the talk was to be held. It took some finding because it was in a different building complex (the Social Sciences and Humanities building), which is not known for its friendliness towards those who are not familiar with it. The design is so creative you get lost trying to walk in a straight line!



The room was ready when I arrived, though, complete with a large coffee and a large plate of brownies and cookies! The first to arrive were Raul, the Head of Department, and his Teaching Assistant on the class he had just taught. 

I was able to connect my computer and check video and sound and was ready to go. Gradually people started arriving and we started punctually because the room was booked for another event later on, so we had to make sure we finished on time.
Bob Bayley introduced me very kindly, making reference to the points of connection between my work and the research interests within the Department. So, I put 'play' on and went through the presentation I had prepared. The audience was a pretty select bunch made up of faculty members and graduate students. Two of the faculty members are originally from Argentina, so it was interesting to see which elements of the background I explained were clearly familiar to them but less so to the rest of the audience. At the end, everyone had a question or some information to share about related projects. They all left me with food for though. All in all, a great experience!

   
   



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UCD - An Eyewitness Guide

-
Image
The University of California-Davis is an amazing place. It is a research university, part of the University of California network, and has been called one of the "public-ivies" in reference to the Ivy League. Many of the students here are first generation college and the range of ethnicities and origins is simply fascinating. I haven't yet counted, but in one of the graduate seminars I am attending there must be over a dozen languages spoken by the less than 15 students attending. Among its faculty there are members of all the academics of Sciences, Arts and Humanities; recipients of awards of all kinds, including the Nobel prize and many of their schools and programmes have been ranked first in the world, for those interested in what those rankings may mean! The geographical setting of the campus is no less impressive. It is a clearly demarcated terrain (you can tell when you enter from the 'outside world', i.e. the town that has grown around it) that seem...
Read more

What Really Happened in the Library

-
Image
Public libraries are a fabulous thing. Or they can be. Here, in Davis, the public library is a gorgeous place.             Open, airy, bright, inviting, with space and spaces for everyone, with books up high for tall people and cushions and books down low for the little ones, with carpeted floors so that everyone can sit down and read, with DVDs, audiobooks, this library organises classes and get-togethers for groups, with different interests.     This is a summarised programme of activities for just one month! You can borrow puzzles or select a pack to work and play with with a group of kids. You can use computers and online catalogues and microfiche machines (do those things still exist??).         There's even traditional seating for those who prefer it.     We went to the Mary Stephens' Library today to collect our member's cards, which we had reques...
Read more

Giving talks

-
Image
On Facebook I shared a few photos of some of the talks I gave both at UC Davis, at other universities and at various conferences, but I didn't think that was the place to share my perceptions of the experience. So here go some observations. There is a mix of levels of formality and informality that contrasts to what I have experienced in other places. On the one hand, there is formality in the punctuality when people come together for these events and how they come to be silent without been told to do so. Introductions have a level of formality but are not stuffy and detached. The style of interaction also presents quite a few differences. People are much more cautious when taking turns or asking questions, there is practically no overlap of voice and there is widespread use of hedging and clarification to ensure there is no offense. Students are politely interested in what I tell them, although I can't be sure that they can fully understand the content of the presentat...
Read more