Professional Development
As a member of the Paris chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI), I get invited to occasional evening lectures and similar events. Yesterday evening I went to hear about La Conduite du Changement, which means "The Conduct of Change" but would probably translate into English biz-speak as "Managing Change". The presentation was held in the university area, at the Maison des Mines.
I was delighted to find that not only could I understand enough to follow the speaker, but the material was familiar but not well-known to me, so that I was actually learning something too. The slides helped, but by listening actively I could absorb as much or more than if I had been listening passively to the same presentation in English.
A further bonus was the drinks and nibbles afterwards; no surprise that the French do these things well. Not lavish, but fine: toasted almonds where we'd expect peanuts, wine where we'd expect coffee, delicate seeded pastry sticks where we'd get carrot sticks.
I engaged a fellow attendee in conversation; but he turned out to be from San Diego, so we quickly lapsed into English. It feels odd to talk to another English speaker in French. In a final effort to speak some French I thanked the speaker, but he was involved in another conversation and only nodded and smiled at me.
posted 18.5.06
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