Recommended by an ex-boss in 2000. - -
SNC - Lavelin was lead consultant on Sanitary Sewer System design/rehabilitation for the City of Valera, Venezuela. The week's objective was to teach the local staff how to use InRoads and Storm&Sanitary for the design of a major truck sewer (aka, "cloaca").
"Don't worry, Jeff. Everyone speaks English."
ONE student spoke English: Scott McNicoll. I'm still grateful.
My Spanish is slow conversational. I learned that it's not fully-interactive instructional.
Fortunately, engineering concepts are fairly universal. And graphs translate well. And Scott did a fine job translating back and forth. I don't think I've seen anyone have to work so hard in a class.
Afterwards, Scott said "I'm really glad you didn't make us just stick to the books. I thought you would just stick to the outline." "What good does that do you?"
(That's even more true now, as all of Bentley's material is available (and designed for) OnDemand self-study at any time. It hasn't quite come to fruition, but it's moving that way:
All Training is self-study. All On-Site is consulting.
Different places have different needs, but if it's my cash, my team is going to learn early and free and use on-site for solving local personal needs.
We spent five good days of excellent knowledge transfer.
The office was a mix of local and international designers. A highlight for me was seeing the office sing Happy Birthday to a colleague in five different languages.
Special thanks to Armando Garcia, who took me on an excursion into the Andes on the weekend. My wife and I were happy to host him later at our home in San Diego.