When I applied for a job at PICnet I proudly listed that I am semi-fluent in German (please don't ask my high school German teacher though; she might highlight the "semi" aspect of it). So, obviously when PICnet assigned me my first site to work on as a newly-hired project manager the site was in...Japanese.
I had the pleasure of working with the Hitachi Foundation to help launch a brand-new site that highlights how business practices can be applied to improve communities and create new economic opportunities. One of the exciting aspects of creating the site was that it really became two-in-one: one in English as well as one in Japanese.
Once we had developed a great template and design for the English side, the challenge of adjusting it to fit for the Japanese language began. All sorts of interesting issues arose as we began filling the site with Japanese characters. For example, while English has no problem with arbitrary line breaks, these are crucially important in Japanese, which meant that the <br> html tag became a good friend of ours in order to make sure everything displayed correctly. Thankfully, I found that the Non-Profit Soapbox platform was flexible enough to handle almost any challenge we threw at it -- as long as we could think creatively.
It was a pleasure working with the Hitachi Foundation team as we launched PICnet's first ever bi-lingual site. Now only one question remains: do I dare add to my resume that I'm semi-fluent in Japanese?
Donations
Events
Petitions
Forms
Shop
Directories