Communicating with international audiences

Issues of internationalcooperation in the CHI community were made personal for me when I moved from the United States to France in July of 1996. Things that I should have noticed before, and which had slid right by me, all of a sudden became salient. For many people already immersed in internationally diverse work environments, much of this will probably be familiar. For those who tend to work within their own national environment, here are some observations and suggestionsbased on my experiences working in France that I hope will be of help. The most practical of these suggestions involve how to give a talk for an international audience, whether or not you're a native speaker of the meeting's target language.