I may have the opportunity to start a course dedicated to hands-on training of interpretation of business presentations. Business presentations using a Powerpoint document displayed in front of an audience, usually small when visiting a company to pitch a service or a product is a standard situation for liaison interpreters. Based on some experience in my current course, it is also a situation that can be fairly well replicated very to close to the real thing in the classroom environment. I already wrote in the past that there are many ppt documents on the Internet, some you would expect not to be exposed in public, that can be exploited for such training based course. Ideally, such course would be alternately taught, or rather, monitored by a duo of trainers, each one native in language A and B. Schools here will not allow this to happen anytime soon, but I will compensate for too much focus on B to A with enrolling the listening part of students in a role playing set up where spontaneous questions and reactions are a requisite. Again, based on testing this approach with previous students, it has shown to be very easy to get spontaneous cooperation from students asking questions out of the blue, the fact that they have to ask questions in language A - Japanese - making them feel much comfortable. More tricks on playing with the audience may be required, like splitting it between an A natives group and an faked B-natives group, the B group being requested to ask questions to the presenter - myself - in B (French), and swapping roles between A and B groups in the middle of the course. This is the kind of course I would have liked to be participating in as a student but I am ending up delivering training in situations for which I have had no classroom training. It may be a common trait of many trainers.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Nikkei goes web based
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun will launch in April it web based version, offering full content and more. Information is scarce and nothing about prices. I would not be surprised the bill to stand high and a no price competition back door agreement with the other big dailies that will launch equivalent services. How the content will fit the needs for interpreting training and advanced Japanese learning is of major interest. How will audio and video content will be integrated in the offer if any?
8 Questions every Business Analyst Should Ask
It does not matter what project you are going to undertake. It is not important what industry you are going to be assessing. What is important is you know what you are going to do. You must as questions. You must find what it is the client wants. Presented is a list of obvious questions every good business analyst should know the answer to when starting a project.
1. What problem is this business having that you hope to solve by developing this project? It should be obvious as to why you would ask that question. If you do not understand what the problem is then you can not help to solve it. Also, when reading the project program it may not be clear as to what the client actually wants. The scope may only tell you what they would like to see happen. It could and often times is not focused on what the true issues are.
2. What is the business doing at present to alleviate or solve the issue? What has been tried in the past? You must understand what the client is doing in order to understand what must be done. You do not want to develop a project plan overview only to have someone tell you it has been tried. Listen to the customer. Find out what they have done. Ask questions while you are listening. On your toes brainstorming so to speak. Listen to what has not worked.
3. What inside resources will this project be utilizing? What outside resources will be necessary? You will want to determine where your help and team players are coming from. You may be familiar with most of the IT, but if the client wants to outsource it is a different game. You may have to make a list of external interactions. Define the company's strengths and weaknesses. This can be most advantageous.
4. Have you determined a vision for the project? The business analyst will compare this scope with the one he or she will develop to ensure consistencies and a parallel outlook. In other words make sure you are on the same path. This is sometimes easier said than done. Communication is the key to success with this question.