Re: [SAGE] Where to start - French?

[susan.diller@kodak.com]

I must have missed the original message.  This probably isn't much help, 
but that never stops me from rambling on...

I taught a workshop in Paris several years ago.  The people attending did 
speak English very well.  However, the computer's main language was 
French, so all of the compiler error messages were in French.  File names 
were easy to identify, so then it was just a matter of figuring out if the 
file was missing or had incorrect permissions, etc.   Sometimes it was 
clear.  Other times it was by trial and error.  The difficult part was 
using the keyboards.  If you were not watching carefully, you did not get 
what you thought you had typed.

If there was a question I could not answer, because I did not understand 
what was being asked,  someone in the class would mediate until we thought 
we were understanding each other.  I think some of the French speaking 
people enjoyed watching me struggle, but after the first good laugh, they 
were very helpful.  Most of the technical terms were the same in both 
languages, or, at least the ones I needed were.

- Sue