Linguistics Seminar

This weekend we were most fortunate to have Dr. Gladys Tang from Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in Phnom Penh for a seminar on sign language linguistics at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP). We have worked with her Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies over the years and Keat Sokly, our DDP co-director, finished a masters degree in sign language linguistics there just six months ago.

Prof. Tang arrived on Friday morning and we put her to work right away. Right after lunch she met with the heads of the Linguistics Department at RUPP about establishing a collaboration between their two universities.
From RUPP we traveled to Krousar Thmey where we met with their administration about other collaborations between their NGO and CUHK.
On Saturday morning Prof. Tang gave an excellent presentation on sign language linguistics–a field unknown to the linguistics faculty and students who packed the meeting room.
Keat Sokly, our DDP co-director, performed excellently as an English-to-Khmer interpreter for Prof. Tang’s talk and that of Charlie Dittmeier.
The university meeting room was filled to capacity for the seminar and many students were turned down.
In the afternoon Charlie Dittmeier gave a presentation on the history and development of Cambodian Sign Language..