Working at JAXA, I often get asked about job opportunities and life in Japan. Truthfully... I dread these questions for a few (probably not terribly good) reasons...
Firstly, I can do little more than direct people to the employment opportunities page at JAXA. As it's unlikely that I'm hiring myself, I do not know anything beyond that page, and I have no sway in whether an application will be successful. JAXA also has many different teams, so I most likely won't know about the group hiring.
The "life in Japan" question I find tough because it's really asking about life outside work. While I babble on social media, I actually don't feel very comfortable answering questions about my private life, even in the most general sense.
I perhaps ought to create a canned answer with a few useful facts that I can pass on in this situation, rather than flee the scene at conferences, or feel guilty about not answering emails 😅
For example, I think it's important to know there will (almost always) be a language barrier. It's not insurmountable, but it can negatively impact your experience and even career. So you need a better reason to be in Japan than you thought it sounded cool!
Maybe I'll add a FAQ page to my website that I could point people towards 🤔
@elizabethtasker I tend to reply with ‘wherever you go, there you are’ or ‘what do you want to know, specifically?’
The first is for people who just want to hear something sensationalist like stories about used panties vending machines or the miracles of kintsugi.
The second is for people who have a genuine interest. They’ll usually think of good questions that won’t make you feel uncomfortable. If not, return to first answer. And the first answer often prods better questions.
@A_bee I have found that what they want to know is about activities outside work, what I do when I'm not in the office, and sometimes even about dating. I understand the purpose of these questions, but I'm not keen on answering them! Also, I'm no longer 20 so my activities probably wouldn't match theirs even in an English-speaking country 😅
@elizabethtasker@A_bee
The thing is really that once you hit 35-40, finding new friends is going to be challenging no matter where you move. By then most people have a stable group of friends, and they're really busy with their families and their careers and have little time for socializing even with their existing friends, never mind any new people.
Finding a hobby you like, then finding people who like the same thing, is a good way forward.
@elizabethtasker
Teacher: 1 out of about every 50 students learns enough Japanese to have an adult conversation. One out of about every 500 students learns enough Japanese to read a newspaper.
Students: [Looking around me class of about 30.] Uhh.
Teacher: Exactly. It's just something you should know.
Those numbers were, incidentally, pretty close to my own experience.
@elizabethtasker I read through this and even not being interested in going to Japan myself (but having the usual astro experience of changing countries and surrounding cultures) found it super interesting. Hope folks will accept that this is as much as you are willing to share - it's a lot already!
@elizabethtasker
A couple of thoughts: re: institutional language it's helpful to remember that foreign researchers with very little in the way of English ability do come to universities in the US and GB - and universities all over Europe - and will manage to successfully live and work where they do. I came to Japan to work at a lab where only the PI and the secretary spoke English at all, and it was doable.
Don't think that language barrier is disqualifying.
@jannem I didn't say it was disqualifying, merely... challenging! Very good to remember it occurs in the other direction too, although I suspect such researchers might be more prepared for the struggle they will face. I feel that's less true as a scientist, especially, where English is widely spoken in the field.
@elizabethtasker
It does depend a lot on your attitude whether you thrive or not.
Over a decade ago I ran into an online argument. A new American PI was upset their Chinese and Taiwanese postdocs were speaking Chinese with each other; the PI couldn't understand what they were saying.
They were also upset that when they had been a postdoc in Japan, people were speaking Japanese with each other, not English.
Seems their attitude was "Everybody must adapt to me". And no, that won't ever work.
@elizabethtasker i think i'll be borrowing the line "I'm generally good treating the world around me as a bunch of NPCs" for future discussions w/ my therapist! 😉