BRIEFS | Seminar for bilingual professionals to be held this month

The Forum Macau and the Macau Polytechnic Institute (IPM) have joined forces to organize a seminar in Chinese-Portuguese language training and its importance to the development of cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries. The course will be held at IPM between September 7 and 8.  The seminar will look at Macau’s role in training bilingual professionals. Several Portuguese and Chinese language teachers have been invited to attend, in addition to representatives of Macau’s industrial and commercial sectors. Organizers said in a statement that the seminar is intended to provide a platform for dialogue between the academic and commercial sectors.

Labor cooperation service opens

Macau’s Labor Affairs Bureau and the Association of Chinese-Funded Employment Agencies launched a management campaign in order to train workers about legal rights and obligations before they come to work in the region. The two organizations inaugurated a Mainland-Macau Labor Cooperation Service Base in Zhuhai yesterday, where the first training class began. The training is aimed to help migrant workers understand the relevant legal frameworks and approaches when defending their rights, as well as avoid unnecessary disputes with employers caused by misunderstanding the legal content. The service base is located in a downtown venue rented by the association, while the Labor Affairs Bureau arranges the class lecturers. According to the bureau, the first group of participants is predominantly construction workers from the mainland, although the training will be extended to other professions in the future.

Deaf Association promotes inclusive education

In light of the limited use of sign language in the region, the Macau Deaf Association is hoping to encourage local families with young children to use sign language in order to explore the idea of developing a bilingual inclusive education. The association has invited experts from the Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong to give promotional lectures and workshops, which have been organized until December for local families to learn about sign and spoken bilingualism. Director of the Macau Deaf Association, Ms Lau Sut Man, pointed out that although the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities came into force in Macau in 2008, the use of sign language is still very limited especially in the fields of education, accessibility and information sharing. The activist noted Macau as a tourism city is lacking in sign language services such as in airlines, museums and in the government’s public consultations; she suggested for the authorities to take the deaf community into consideration when publishing official information.