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New Training Experience In Tokyo

I’ve presented training sessions hundred of times, many of them hands-on sessions, and many of them sessions that were simultaneously translated in to other languages. But I had never attempted a hands-on session with simultaneous translation before – until today, here at MAX Japan. And it was quite the experience. The session went well, it was the same Hands-On ColdFusion Powered Ajax that I presented in Chicago and in Barcelona, but with a twist. My hand-out notes were translated into Japanese, and the attendees were using the Japanese version of ColdFusion (with Japanese Dreamweaver on Japanese Windows). Getting the machines set up was fun enough, but the real challenge was providing help. I was looking at ColdFusion error messages in Japanese and trying to figure out what they meant by the few English words and the Java stack trace, clicking on Windows and browser dialog boxes by trying to remember what button was in where, typing on a Japanese keyboard (finding : and / and # and % was fun enough, but the tiny space bar meant I kept hitting keys that switched languages), dealing with invisible embedded characters that threw off the compiler … as I said, quite the experience. In addition, some of the instructions seemed to get lost in translation. For example, the instructions said to “Type the following between and “, and several typed those exact words into the CFC. And so on. Fortunately the session run for 2 1/2 hours (instead of the 1 1/2 in MAX US and MAX Europe), so we got through all of the content. Still, it made for an interesting afternoon!

3 responses to “New Training Experience In Tokyo”

  1. Raymond Camden Avatar
    Raymond Camden

    Would it make sense if the non-English CF servers had an option to generate error messages in English? I’m thinking it could be useful for cases where you want to hire someone to help, but that person only speaks English. It would be cool if the Admin could be viewed in English as well. Again though – just as a temporary setting.

  2. Jeffry Houser Avatar
    Jeffry Houser

    "…many of them sessions that were simultaneously translated in to other languages. But I had never attempted a hands-on session with simultaneous translation before – until today,"
    Am I reading this wrong, or did you say that many were simultaneously translated in one sentence, and in the next sentence say that today was your first simultaneous translation?

  3. wompa1 Avatar
    wompa1

    could you be so kind as to list any resources on training an American can do in Tokyo? thanks

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