PEN International- Day 3

This is the morning of our third day. The title for the morning’s content is Assumptions and Expectations. The presenters focused on Deaf and Hard of Hearing people. This workshop taught us about environmental and attitudinal employment barriers and how to overcome them. There are two limits/ requirements of a deaf person to get a job; communication and safety. Those requirements can be modified but not many employers understand or even know about it. This workshop educated us, and other people, about what we can do to educate the company into making accommodations with and for us without a total rejection due to our disability. I will always remember this statement form this session, "Modification changes the way a job is done, not the job requirements." Often times, people misunderstand the difference between the way to get the job done and the actual requirements of a job. The job will be completed with cooperation and a modification to accommodate the employee.

The morning went fast and the afternoon was equally interesting and relevant. This afternoon, we discussed characteristics of successful leaders. What made them good leaders in first place? Several characteristics were identified including loyalty, enthusiasm, acceptance, effort, responsibility and sacrifice to name a few. We had an activity where we had 10 people on a boat and the boat is sinking. We have to figure out which 5 people get to stay in the boat, which 5 get off the boat. Essential we had to decide how lived and who died. This was a very difficult task and the groups from each country had different answers. This then lead to a very interesting and lively debate. We were very surprised by some decisions and the differences in cultural core values. China and Japan decisions were based from a humanitarian perspective while Russia placed value on productive members of society and the individual contributions or potential. That is why they chose people who were scientists and technologists. We, the Americans, focused on the physical ability and the amount of money a person had as being worthy of living. We could not come to a consensus in our group and actually just had to vote to figure out who got to stay in the boat and who had to get out. But taking a vote we actually came to an agreement faster than the other groups. It almost seemed cruel but in actuality it was the fairest approach because everyone was then equal. That is part of American society forging and getting things done fast. This exercise provided us an opportunity to see how culture influences personal core values which impact decision making.

After the long and intense days in the workshops it was most enjoyable to go for dinner and the evening speakers. This particular day we had a speaker from Japan who signed in Japanese sign language. It was really neat to watch someone presenting in a different language other than ASL or English. Mayumi presented about her experiences with Deaf people and founded PEP Net- Japan. PEP Net is a network for colleges and universities about services for people with disability like interpreters, resources, etc. Mayumi also presented about her experiences and told us how each of our experiences are building towards the next new experience. During this presentation, as well as all the presentations and workshops, we learned so much. With all the different topics, concepts and exercises there was so much information to process which was exhausting at times.

This evening we ended with two more cultural presentations. Our group from USA and China presents about our respective countries. One thing I noticed during our USA presentation is the peanut butter. We, Americans, love peanut butter and had brought some to share with everyone. Peanut butter is a very individual American food. This was some of the participant’s first taste of peanut butter and most of them actually did not like peanut butter! The Last dinner at the castle, I had a peanut butter and banana sandwich. MMMM (They don’t have peanut butter in the UK, so if you ever travel there, bring some!)