When a college in the United States recommended Jennifer McLean to Beijing Union University, no one mentioned that the professor could not hear. So the university's foreign affairs staff scheduled her to teach courses on deaf learning to hearing students. Foreign affairs staff members at first took Professor McLean's occasional faltering speech for an American regional dialect and did not know why she would not respond when someone's back was turned.
'She would say, 'Pardon me? Pardon me?',' said Cheng Jianfang, head of the university's International Training Centre. 'I wondered, is my English really that terrible?'
Last Tuesday, afraid she would be discovered and fired before her first day on the job, Professor McLean told the Foreign Affairs Office she could not hear.
The university hired her to teach 12 hours a week at the school's Special Education Institute.
Because she can read lips and speak with little trouble, Professor McLean can teach as long as she faces her students.
Although Ms Cheng said she felt 'deceived' and 'angry' that Professor McLean did not mention her deafness earlier - causing confusion among her colleagues - she said she would honour the contract and that she had never thought of cancelling it. Indeed, she added:
