Three Weeks of Class Remain

 Today marks 24 days left until I leave Japan.  I have just three more meetings for each of my classes.  In that time, I will give another 3 or 4 talks/presentations.  There are a few student office visits remaining.

Here are some things I want to suggest to future exchange professors.

    1.  Learn to recognize the N5 and N4 kanji.  There are about 300 of them, which seems dauntingly large at first.  In fact, with 15-20 minutes a day over a week or two you can learn them.  It will make recognizing products in the stores quite a bit easier.

    2.  Speak slowly when talking.  This does not mean speak louder.  Just slow down a bit.

    3.  Whatever lessons you plan, know you have planned them to be too difficult.  Expect to change everything.

    4.  Make sure you are in bicycle riding shape.  I rode all over and I found it very liberating to do so.

    5.  Take one of your lessons to talk about writing a graduation/Bachelor's thesis.  The students do not know how to do this.  Changing a course is very difficult for the permanent faculty to do, but exchange professors have a lot more flexibility.

    6.  Tami can chime in on this, but I would say maintain a blog like I did.  Especially if you are bad at keeping a journal, like I am.  Knowing other people are reading this motivates me to write.  At the end of this all I'll have about 100 entries and hundreds more photos that I would not have taken otherwise.

With the thesis talk today we had the students do two activities.  The first was an idea brainstorm.  We provided them with a list of a dozen or so broad topics and asked them to choose two to expand.  My example was "fishing."  I expanded that by noting many cultures fish, but some cultures use different methods, like dragnets, thrown netting, diving, line, and traps.  It is viewed as a sport or leisure activity in some countries.  I know that fish are a valuable food source.  Worldwide populations of many species of fish are declining, in part due to over-fishing.  Fish farming is a way to increase fish "harvests."

The notion of brainstorming was not new to the students, but putting it into practice was difficult.  This is just the first step.  A good thesis must have a clear statement that answers a question.  The next activity was to look at the expanded topic list and start asking questions from it.  I told them they could focus on a few topics or just one.  What problems are associated with fish farming?  Are there certain fish that are better suited to farming?  How do different cultures view the practice of fish farming?

These two activities were very hard for the students.  First, it was done in a second language.  Second, and more importantly, in order to develop topic ideas and ask questions you first need some base knowledge.  The only way to get that base knowledge is to read, watch, and listen to a lot of different books, movies, television programs, and radio or music.  That foundation allows you to consider connections between ideas and ask questions that you might find interesting.

When you've spent a good chunk of your life doing this type of work, it is hard to stop yourself.  I needed reminding that this is the first time many of these students are being asked to perform this way.  They are very used to giving an answer when a question is asked.  They are not used to finding an answer to a question they ask.

After class a student came to talk with me about all of it.  It was difficult for them to even write down a question they did not know the answer to for fear of me thinking them deficient somehow.  I realized one thing I did not state is that people who do academic work thrive in the space where they do not know the answers.  Finding those questions that allow me to learn something new is exciting.  Hell, just digging up examples about fish farming made me want to learn more and have me wondering if there is a better way to do it.  Less waste, more efficient growth methods, ways to mitigate disease and parasites.  Are there good (or any) tiered systems where farming fish X with fish Y (and Z) gives better results?  I know there are combined fish/hydroponic produce farms.  How can that be modified or improved?

I guess now my question is how do we pass on the love of learning stuff to 20 year-old students who have had it systematically stamped out of them?