Observations by Kaj Arnö @Sun
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Big in Japan »

Tokyo 9 April 2008: Press event, World Tour, Meetup Mashup

This week’s Wednesday was a big thing for MySQL and Sun in Japan:

  • Over 300 attendees to our World Tour event in Tokyo
  • Over 30 press attendees to the press conference in the morning
  • Availability of nine-to-five MySQL Technical Support in Japanese announced
  • Availability of MySQL Enterprise Monitor in Japanese announced
  • Availability of MySQL Knowledge Base articles in Japanese announced

I had the opportunity to keynote 60 minutes on the MySQL Architecture of Participation, with the first 5 minutes in Japanese.

Minasama, Konnichiwa.
Konotabi wa, Sun Microsystems toh MySQL AB no Tougou ni tsuite, *Kigaru* ni *Oiwai* shi, *Hanashiau* tameno, Launch Event he, Youkoso Okoshi Kudasaimashita.

[the following four minutes deleted]

Against all hearsay advice for gai-jins, saying that foreigners should not attempt at joking in front of a Japanese audience, I also inserted a small attempt at making the audience laugh towards the end of my presentation:

Minasama wa, Mou, Owakari kato Omoimasuga, Watashi wa Nihongo wo *Hanashi masen*. Desukara, Minasama kara Question wo Oukesuru toki wa, honyaku shi, Eigo de, Kaitou sasete itadakitaito Omoimasu.

For those of you who are in the same unfortunate position as me, not to understand the quote, what I said was

As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, I *don’t* speak Japanese, which means that I’ll rely on translations for understanding your questions, and I will reply in English.

My “limitations” in Japanese were sorely apparent by the time I mentioned that, and surely enough, there were a couple of Japanese chuckles in the audience.

The Q&A then started with an intensity of questions that I am used to from my native Finland, in other words, complete silence. After the first brave Samurai opening up the q&a session, the questions started flowing and were of the same type as elsewhere: What are our plans for storage engines? What does the Sun integration mean? Will Sun change us? Will we stay open source? (Yes, we will).

Thanks to Yoko Suga-san, and everyone at MySQL KK and Sun KK who made this great event such a success!

References from MySQL:

References from Japanese press:

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 13th, 2008 at 2:44 and is filed under Events, MySQL, Sun, Sun visits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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