April 18, 2018

Three weeks ago, I had the exciting experience of giving my first Chinese speech at the 4th CSS Developers Conference in Xiamen on March 31st.

I’ve learned a lot from this experience — both about myself and about China’s development landscape — and I’d like to share what I’ve learned with you here.

Let me first introduce the two organizers.

The organizers

The organizers (Yubo and Lin Yi) are a very smart and capable duo. I say “smart and capable” for lack of a better word, because I really don’t know how to describe them better; I’m not much of a story writer. So allow me to use the word “smart and capable” for a moment.

If you’ve been around conference organizers, you know that it’s not easy to organize a conference. Many organizers put their other work on hold in order to organize a meeting.

Not so with these two lads.

They still have to work during the day (that kind of work is challenging enough), but they still organize meetings in China every year. For 2018 alone, they’ll have two more — vue.js and React JS developer conferences.

This means they are organizing meetings on their own time. They even hack (until the wee hours of the morning) to book airline tickets and so on.

I mention them this way because I was moved by them. They are older than I am, but they can stay fresh all day (even into the night). Then they get up early again the next day, and they’re still fresh. How did they do it? On the other hand, why do I get tired easily? (I don’t have an answer yet, but I’m actively looking for one.)

One more thing. I benefited a lot from their hospitality. I’ll talk about that later.

Now LET me introduce the conference itself.

Meeting place

The meeting was held in a movie theater (yes, the movie kind).

The meeting was held in the cinema

I was shocked when I entered the meeting place. It never occurred to me that anyone would hold a meeting in a cinema because films are usually shown from a control room at the back. If you want to talk on a speaker, your laptop has to be in the control room (or at least in the back row). How can we speak without laptops? If you need a live programming demo, how do you do it?

Organizers have creative ideas. They used an Apple TV and a router to speed up the wireless signal, which connected us to the control room. So our laptops are in the front row, but we still don’t have access to the Internet. But it’s better than not having a laptop at all.

Well, I’m just really impressed with how creatively they can adapt the environment to suit their needs. My partner, Hui Jing, is also quite good at improvising on the spot. She called it “taking things as they come”. I think “taking things as they come” is definitely a powerful skill to master.

My speech

This is my first speech in Chinese. Of course, I felt a little nervous, even though I speak Chinese at home.

My biggest concern is the translation of industry-related terms. How to translate components, relative units, maintainable, scalable, and even media queries?

I used to be so nervous that I tweeted something like this to calm myself 😂.

– 🛫 will go to China tomorrow – 👷♂️ will drive Google Translate crazy on Friday – 😱 will give a speech in Chinese on Saturday, wish me luck! 😄

— Zell Liew 🤗 (@zellwk)
March 28, 2018

Fortunately, there were several professional translators in the group. Two, actually. Both of these have helped with the Translation of Vue files into English. They told me which words needed to be translated and which did not. Obviously, you don’t need to translate Media Query into Chinese, because no one would understand it if you did!

They even gave me a list of words to translate (which I added to the slide in case I forgot 😂).

List of words in English translation

Insert the translated words into the slide to make it easier to remember

Thanks to these two gentlemen, Hook Three Four and Justineo (that’s their nickname; Thanks to them, I can make my speech without crying. Rather, I felt confident enough to help another speaker in the process 😂.

How did my presentation go?

Hehe, I am a mixed Chinese and English speaker. Most are In Chinese; What I said could not even be explained in English on the spot. Even I was surprised.

I learned (and proved again) that we don’t have to be perfect, just to be able to provide the information we care about. We can’t control how the audience reacts.

Rewarding hospitality

I flew to Xiamen on Thursday; The conference speech is Saturday; Then I fly out on Monday. So if you do the math, you’ll find that I have two free days in Xiamen — Friday and Sunday. The organizers agreed without asking.

These extra two days are very important to me. I asked to fly on Thursday because I was nervous about the speech. I wanted to give myself enough time to prepare because I knew I wouldn’t be able to concentrate in Singapore. The reason I asked to fly out on Monday was so I could spend the whole day enjoying the city I’d never been to.

The fact that the organisers booked flights and hotels without saying a word made me feel they wanted to reassure guests, which was important. I’ll talk more about that later.

Besides giving me two days to feel comfortable, they also took me to visit Xiamen on Sunday. I don’t know if I’m being ridiculous, but I’m enjoying it. When I visit a new city, I’m not interested in tourist attractions. What I’m interested in is people. I love hanging out with locals — organizers, volunteers, even local developers.

Their hospitality to me has taught me to be hospitable to you:

  • If you didn’t buy my book or course, did I create enough content to help you become better developers?
  • If you buy my book or my course, have I helped you overcome your learning disabilities and successfully learn the skills you are teaching? What else can I do?

I bring these questions to mind every day, always pushing myself to do a better job of serving others (though I admit that sometimes I don’t do a better job).

If you have any questions, if you know how I can help you more, please let me know anytime, anywhere, and I will find a way to do it!

conclusion

I go to meetings for two purposes — content and people. CSS China inspired me both in terms of content and in terms of people. The content aspect is as outstanding as any CSS conference held anywhere, and I had a great time making some great friends during my short trip to China.

I also got an unexpected reward — pushing and prodding myself every day not to be lazy, knowing how to treat people (and you), and making everyone feel at home.

It was a great trip to China.

Can you tell which one is me? 😁

Thank you for reading. Do you find this article useful? If you find it useful, I hope you can share it with others. It may help those who felt the same way you did before reading. thank you

Translated by SimonSong on 11 May 2018

Simon worked as site installation translator, technical translator and board document translator in Sino-British joint venture company from 1997 to 2000. From 2000 to 2003 he worked as a quality engineer and product engineer in an American company. From 2003 to 2018, worked as the technical editor of Chinese and English books in the publishing house. Simon was a Christian. He believed in Jesus.

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