I was selected for a JSPS grant in 2018, and visited my colleagues at Fukushima University. My 60 day visit to Fukushima University was the longest time I had ever been in Japan and it was the most rewarding experience of my life, both scientifically and personally.
Dr. Kenji Nanba was instrumental in arranging for my visit, including lodging and setting up classroom lectures as well as my research. He personally met me at the airport, and brought me to Fukushima. So many amazing things happened during my stay that I will focus on the teaching for this article.
I was asked to give a series of lectures on environmental radioactivity to the students at Fukushima University. Every Thursday night, I lectured for two hours in English.
The lectures were to be in English, but I realized that giving the lectures in English may be problematic for some students. While preparing the lectures I recalled that when non-English speakers gave a lecture, it was very helpful when their power point presentations were in English. Even though some non-English speakers had poor or not quite perfect grammar, I still found that it was useful. My next step was to use Google translate to translate all my materials into Japanese, and provide English “subtitles”. Although my knowledge of Japanese is minimal, I can recognize the difference between Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. When the translating application changed words to Katakana rather than Kanji or Hiragana, I would modify the sentence until it translated as Kanji. For example, “class” translates as クラス, which is Katakana. “Lecture”, on the other hand, translates as 講義, which is Kanji. Many technical words were almost identical in Japanese and English, such as tomato (but not potato!). I would have my host, Dr. Kenji Nanba and the International Programs coordinator, He Min, review my power points prior to each lecture, correcting any embarrassing errors I had made.
Lecturing in Japan is a bit different than in the USA. Each lecture was very well attended, and many students attended with the intention of learning about how a lecture sounds in English. Each student was in the classroom, seated and facing the front, well in advance of the lecture starting. After I started lecturing, each student would begin writing, seemingly writing every word I said. Typically when teaching I ask questions of students to ensure understanding. Having some experience with teaching, I had brought some Colorado quarters ($0.25) as well as some stickers to give to students who volunteered to answer questions in class. Not a single Japanese student offered to answer a question in any of the lectures. One student, from Vietnam, did answer a few questions. Eventually, I just gave each of the students a sticker and a quarter for simply coming to all the lectures.
The class was outstanding and it is a joy to provide various lectures online for Fukushima University to this day.
The Faculty and students at Fukushima University were amazingly gracious and patient with me. After each class some students would take the opportunity to talk with me. Many of them would walk to the last train with me each night, and we would have some very interesting discussions.
There was a group of three students that had participated in a program in Colorado that took me out to dinner one night in Fukushima City. They were very grateful for the opportunity to learn about radiation as well as practice their English skills. At the dinner, I wanted to order my favorite drink, and desperately tried to find a kanji translation using my translation app. I was able to find a photo of my drink, and showed the waiter. He nodded in understanding, and went to get my drink. When he returned I asked the students the proper word for my drink, and they sort of laughed and said “orange juice” in almost perfect English. I said, no, how do I say it in Japanese? This time they were unable to contain their laughter, and said “orange juice” again! Maybe learning Japanese is not so difficult after all.
back to Stories from Japan