I am fascinated by people who are fascinated by Japan. I mean people from outside Japan who live here. The gaijin community.
I am not fascinated by Japan. To me this is an ordinary country like any other. Under the superficial layer of cultural differences people are the same. They have their everyday problems that are the same as in other countries and their everyday lives are not that much different.
I do not comprehend why do non-Japanese people come here and stay for 10-15year, or longer (i.e. forever). Maybe it is because most of them work as English teachers, and have part-time jobs and plenty of free time to do what they want and enjoy exploring? I am not so lucky. I was sucked in the long-hours culture and my Japanese work-life does not leave much of my soul left.
I have no idea why I came here. Was I so interested in the fact that other people find Japan fascinating? Was I waiting for "awakening" to find out why Japan is so fascinating to other people?
I have been here a short while (two months) and to me it is a country like any other country. Everyday life is not different here than anywhere else. It is actually boring. I do not understand why people come here and what do they want to discover?
Maybe Japan is not treating me very well and that’s why I am not having any awakening - I am just not having a nice experience. I am having a boring experience. I do not understand other people’s fascination.
Monday, 19 January 2009
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Okay, I'll tell you why I'm fascinated with Japan. Actually... it would be rather long so I'll post the most important reason. It's because I really like certain books and authors and I want to read them in the original language. I cannot learn a language easily unless I live in a country. I did the same with German, and being able to read the books and authors I loved in the original was indescribable. I don't really care for German culture too much one way or another. I was really, really happy when I could do it very fast and understand everything. I guess there are some deeper reasons why I was interested in German and Japanese literature to start with, but too much to go into in a comment box and I'm not sure I want to.
ReplyDeleteThe only way I can learn the Japanese language now is to do the same thing as you. I'm a scientist, so I've been looking into postdocs. The earliest I can get there is when I'm 32 I bet, so it might be too late. But I've been having doubts with their science system, so finding your blog just a little while ago, has been a great help.
Is there any sort of mechanism where you can do research in a capacity similar to working in Max Planck? i.e. independent scientist with own funding under a general direction of a lab head and using a lab's or university's space? What is the average age of a postdoc there?
I never had the fascination. But I have many friends who have it.
ReplyDeleteThis made me curious. What do they see in that country? Maybe I should check it out. So I do have curiosity, but not fascination.
Japanese is different to German, so I recommend that you start learning now. The grammar is easy. The biggest problem is writing/reading - for that you can get books from Amazon for self-study. This could ease your transition when you come here, and since reading is your goal anyway...
For foreigner to be fluent it takes 4-5 years of full time study. Of course you can speak much faster, but reading and writing takes time.
Do not forget that research is a full time job. And with the Japanese work culture you will not have much free time left for study. Maybe it is better to save money and come here for example for 3 months intensive Japanese course (YMCA Japan does them for example). Such courses leave you free time to interact with Japanese society and for sightseeing. You can repeat such courses every year or so until you are fluent. This would suit much more to your goal of reading Japanese books.
My biggest problem is not being to read Japanese. This leaves you really isolated in the society. You cannot find any information, you cannot integrate. Well, this is the case in my remote place. My advise - go to the big city, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, where there is a big international community that could help you with everyday life.
I think there is something that Japanese and Germans have in common, bureaucracy and being cold and distant (at first, or to strangers), the patriarchal system (there is a similar level of female professors, 3% in Japan, 4% in Germany. Sometimes I think "No wonder that they were allies during WW2"...
Postdocs are a new thing in a Japanese system, and 32 is not too old, they finish their PhDs when they are 29-30 anyway. MAke sure you read about Japanese academia and how the system works here before you come here. I have a few articles that I would like to discuss in this blog in future, I could send them to you by email, please write, my email is in my profile.
I do not know what your discipline is. Getting a job in Japan is quasi transparent, I guess it is best to know the right people, but you could also try the cold calling approach. Check big names at the big universities and email them.
Is there any Japanese professor whose papers you have read and were impressed by? I came here to work with this professor because I liked their past papers. After you establish that the professor wants you and you have a project then you can apply for two year funding for foreign postdocs, JSPS. Check their website for more info.
"I have a few articles that I would like to discuss in this blog in future, I could send them to you by email, please write, my email is in my profile."
ReplyDeleteSure, I'd like that, I guess I'll email you. Reading this blog has been great as it lets me see a lot of downsides to working in Japan that I would have no idea existed there since I've never been. Still, reading this blog has also made the idea of actually going there more concrete in my mind. And I still have to read a lot of the earlier posts (I just got here since I'm a regular YFS reader -- never comment there and I followed your comment).
Saving money and coming there for a few months will not be an option for me unless I want to destroy my career or something. Or I work for industry and become unemployed. It's really tough to have that much free time in academia. Still, I learned German when I was working there full time (50 hour weeks) and it didn't take me all that long but I also never went sight-seeing. So unless the Japanese work 100 hours a week, I don't think it would be too much of a problem. And judging by your blog, they seem to have a dysfunctional attitude towards effective work :)
Plus I already can read the hiragana and katakana and know about 100 Kanji (only 2,900 more to go...) Thanks for the info and for the blog!
I can only think of one person that I want to work under there off the top of my head, but I could work with anyone if I was given some freedom in my projects. I would be happy to work on that one professor's ideas though. I wonder if RIKEN or some other government research lab is hiring foreigners for independent research...
"Plus I already can read the hiragana and katakana and know about 100 Kanji (only 2,900 more to go...)"
ReplyDeleteAt least that's a start. A Japanese would say "Keep going!" (Gambate!)
So unless the Japanese work 100 hours a week, I don't think it would be too much of a problem."
They do. Maybe not all the time, but most of it? So this will be up to you, whether you want to be collegial and bend in to peer pressure, or to be yourself and work shorter hours (i.e. 50h week), but then they see you as an outsider and a slacker.
RIKEN had special fellowships for foreign postdocs or example last spring. I do not know if they have it yearly or if it was one-off. Keep checking their website. Or go for JSPS, they give relatively good money for their fellowship.
"but I could work with anyone if I was given some freedom in my projects"
hahaha! freedom? hmmm...
Do read some books about the Japanese mind, their approach to work and business. Not just literature. Get a feeling for the "real" world.
I asked my supervisor "how much freedom do I have". He answered all that you can "within the projects that we discussed", (that he wants me to work on), "if you want to work on anything else you must ask me". He thinks that going for a visit to another university for two days, so that I can set up a collaboration with his (!!!) former postdoc, is a waste of time. He does not want to let me to go to one-day meeting on our research topic in English, it is a waste of time.
Many Japanese profs will not let you go to conferences, as they think this is a waste of time. You are just data production machine to them. And even if they do it will be in Japan only. There are exceptions though. So make sure you know what the prof's attitude is on this before you decide to work with them. And go for the well funded lab, with many people. You will need them to help you navigate the system.
Go for the prof that you already know, why would you want to work for a stranger? For the time here to be well spent you want to be working on something that fascinates you. This will give you energy and drive to survive in this strange country.