From: Dave Aronson Date: 2012-09-20T23:30:28+09:00 Subject: Re: [ANN] RubyWorld Conference 2012 In message "Re: [ANN] RubyWorld Conference 2012" on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 18:52:54 +0900, botp writes: > (if only i could speak jap... i have phobia on foreign land..) If that city is anything like Tokyo, you probably won't need much Japanese. I studied Japanese for a couple of business trips to Tokyo a few years back, but any time I went up to the counter at a hotel, restaurant, train station, etc., they saw my round eyes and started talking English to me. The only times I needed to speak Japanese were a tiny sushi restaurant and a tiny antique dealer stall. On the other claw, just like anybody, they really appreciate it when you try to learn their language, rather than ass-u-me that everybody speaks yours. (Learning a few bits of basic French, even if spoken poorly, will even get you decent service from Parisian waiters!) So when it came time to give my presentations (to Japanese audiences), I started with several sentences of Japanese. I think that really helped cement the relationships. -Dave -- Dave Aronson, Available Secret-Cleared Ruby/Rails Freelancer (VA/DC/Remote); see www.DaveAronson.com, www.Codosaur.us, and www.Dare2XL.com for more info.