It is true that most universities or research institutes in Japan speak Japanese, and few speak English. Like my institute, both professors graduated from the United States, with a large proportion of international students and few good English speakers. I think Japanese should at least reach the level of N2. When I lived in the dormitory, there was a student from China University of Science and Technology next door. His Japanese has reached N2 level, but I think his communication ability is much better. You can take Japanese classes at school for free at the master's degree, which can improve a lot.
2. What are the similarities and differences between Japanese scientific research work (such as system and scientific research atmosphere) and Europe, America and China? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
I think the biggest feature of Japanese scientific research is inheritance. One direction will be studied for many years, and of course some adjustments will be made during the period, but the general direction is the same. After many laboratory professors retire, their successors are their own children or well-known scholars in this field.
Another big feature is that I am careful and meticulous. I only use my personal experience to illustrate, and try not to make irrelevant conclusions. Reference institutions are the Department of Environment of Shenzhen Graduate School of Tsinghua University, the Department of Environment of Peking University, our research institute, the British Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and the Department of Chemical Engineering of HKUST. I used to work as an experimental instrument when I was studying in HKUST Chemical Engineering Department. The school will collectively train safety knowledge, and I have to take the exam before I can use it. However, the specific usage rules of each instrument can only be taught by brothers and sisters. In the Department of Environment of Peking University, someone will teach you how to use it, because most instruments are public. In our research institute, it is used strictly because of its small scale. Each instrument has 1 professor and 2 students. Ask the students how to use it before using it, and pay attention to where. Say hello and go to the professor. The professor will ask you questions. If you can't call, ask again until you can answer all the questions in the world.
We use a weighing balance to answer a questionnaire containing 10 questions. There are seven rules for using MilliQ water purifier: look at the value on the display screen before using, and the conductivity is18.2mω * cm @ 25℃; Do not connect TOC 5ppb when it is horizontal before use; Pick it up with a specific bottle, not a bottle; When connecting, connect obliquely, so that water can flow to the wall, without bubbles, and prevent pollutants in the air from entering the water; Never touch the head that touches the water; If the dosage is large, pay attention to the water quantity prompt on the screen. When applying for a fume hood, I was asked why a fume hood should be used, which pollutants will cause harm to the human body, what are its characteristics, how to cause harm and what are its hazards. Using ultraviolet spectrophotometer, I have been asking how to deduce Lagrange constant.
The research institutes and universities mentioned above are not so strict in this respect. In other respects, when we show PPT in the report, my tutor is a typical Japanese. He will deeply interpret the rationality of each word, the layout and number of words on each page, the placement of important content, the mastery of time and content, the font size ... even the final conclusion must be changed. Thank you for your kindness. Be sure to use it instead of thank you. It's rude. I often go to Shenzhen as an intern. Students in Shenzhen don't give such detailed reports, and neither does HKUST. CEH has done a good job in this regard. After all, it is the mother tongue, and the expression is more in place.
I think some domestic research institutes and some departments of top universities have caught up, and more and more teachers are coming back from abroad, and their level is more and more in line with foreign countries. In 2000, CNS academician. In 2005, there was a nationwide CNS check, and there were several biomedical CNS articles on 20 10 ... Now both undergraduate and master students of South China University of Technology in Qingbei have published CNS.
Topic selection: I think Hong Kong chooses the topic more from the perspective of publishing articles, with the ultimate goal of publishing articles. My tutor will always ask you what is the purpose and significance of doing this, but there are not many articles published in our research, but we have made many achievements in patents and engineering, and we can also become a Japanese leader (Professor Chen Guanghao). It's not that publishing articles is not good. It is understandable to publish articles in science, but it is a bit inappropriate to publish articles blindly in engineering. After all, articles should be used in practice, and articles are not the only evaluation criteria for scientific research. CEH is a research institute, which focuses on scientific research and can engage in long-term projects, unlike doctoral degrees in universities, changing disciplines. They chose many hot issues in today's world, listed their key points, and everyone cooperated with them. This is great.
Working hours: Tsinghua has some domestic characteristics. What time do you arrive every day? How many hours a day? I saw some master students playing games there all morning, and many master students basically went back at 6 pm. In Britain, it's always from 9: 00 to 6: 00 in the morning and 8: 00 at the latest. You can't stay longer if you like. People have to close their doors and get off work. Both the students in our institute and Dr. Bo worked hard. Although no one cares when you come, there are people from Monday to Sunday, from 9 am to afternoon 12. The professor is also very diligent. When I first arrived, he often sent an email at 2 am and another at 5 am. This year, a Ph.D. graduate was stopped by 10 from 5 pm to 1 1 and rested for 10 minutes. The pressure in HKUST is similar to that in Japan. We all work the same hours, but we go less on weekends. Tired or not depends on the direction of the teacher's guidance, and science is generally tired. Teachers' laboratories who have been studying in Japan are more tired than teachers in European and American departments.
Scientific research system and atmosphere: it's hard to say in this respect, but Japanese professors have great rights, and the funds for powerful professors are super high. Professors in the same department can have many opportunities to go to meetings for internships and earn scholarships, while other research laboratories don't have so many opportunities, and some don't know these things at all. And because the heads of our institute are all American graduates, they may be more European and American in general. After all, Tsinghua and HKUST are both universities, and they should also give consideration to education. However, I still think that Japanese professors have high social status, and their salary and pressure are quite high. My professor's annual salary is less than120 thousand yen. According to my classmate, if you work well in a trading company or a national civil servant, you can have so many at the age of 30. Moreover, you can only recruit if you have a position, and you will always be a postdoctoral fellow if you don't have a position. Many talented people can't wait to become professors in America. Although Hong Kong is paper-driven, it has a lot of money. The monthly salary of HKUST assistant professors is 60,000-70,000 Hong Kong dollars, that of associate professors is 90,000 Hong Kong dollars, and that of full professors is 654.38+0.4 million Hong Kong dollars (before tax). Besides, as a teacher in HKUST, he can live in a sea view room for free. My professor lives alone in a shabby single apartment in Kyoto, and his wife and children are all in Tokyo. It's pathetic to go to work by subway every day. CEH, I really like it. It's so scientific. There is a 10 minute break every morning and afternoon. It's good for everyone to have tea together to exchange results and improve each other instead of fighting alone. Why is there a hair dryer in the bathroom? Drinking a cup of tea is 1/3 cold water +2/3 hot water, and 75℃ is the best. CEH's research institute does not accept doctors, and the state allocates a lot of funds to focus on scientific research, which is stronger and produces more results.
Advantages and disadvantages: Japanese scientific research is very solid, and you can learn real things when you meet the right people, but there are few articles in many places. If you can't speak Japanese, you won't enjoy as many resources or study as you can. To tell the truth, the overall level of students coming to Japan is not too high, and it is relatively easy to win prizes, especially the scholarship of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 1.47 million yen, which is free of tuition every month, similar to the friendship between Europe and the United States, and can support two people. HKUST Scholarship is HK$ 65,438 +03 per month, 600 yuan. Tuition fee is 3,000 yuan, and dormitory fee is 3 100. There's not much left after the deduction. After all, Britain is the birthplace of modern science. Training is more systematic and free, but it is not easy to get money.
Finally, I criticized HKUST, boasting that it ranked first in Asia for three consecutive years, but it included the Nobel Prize, Wolf Prize, Lasker Prize, Dirac Prize, Abel Prize, Fields Prize, Turing Prize ... There were no winners, and there were no universities in Hong Kong and New Zealand (Gao Shenkun was not bad), indicating that the foundation of science was still a little weak, at least not innovative enough; There are not many practices and enterprises in engineering, just writing articles and pouring water. It is also difficult to be a teacher after graduation. Of all the teachers in HKUST, no more than five graduated from Hong Kong. In the words of a senior in my chemistry department, studying PhD in Hong Kong is McDonald's and KFC, which is fast and nutritious.
What scientific research needs most is interest, and previous experience is not very important. The key is to learn more, accumulate more and think more in the learning process. My biggest feeling when I came to Japan is that no matter what you did before, you can make some achievements as long as you work hard and do scientific research in a down-to-earth manner. Look at the Japanese who won the Nobel Prize in recent years: Kenichi Tanaka, Sukehiro Shimomura, shinya yamanaka and Shuji Nakamura. Almost all of them are inspirational dramas. Apart from interest and freedom, I decided to engage in scientific research because there is no right or wrong in many things, and another angle may be right. However, there is evidence that scientific research is right or wrong. Everyone is also very rational and won't quarrel with each other. The doctor looks at the school as a layman, so it is better to look at the tutor. In the same major, it is estimated that thousands of people enter the world famous schools to study for doctoral degrees every year; The number of teachers teaching this major in prestigious schools may be around 1000. However, there may be about 100 people who can really be called top scholars in the world, so Professor Daniel should be a scarce resource. To give an inappropriate example, the second generation of academics graduated from Daniel's laboratory. Similarly, some graduates from Oxford and Cambridge, Tokyo University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Berkeley, California, are so awesome that they won the Nobel Prize, and some are so poor that they can't even find a good university teacher in China. I know many such examples. Tubo from Tsinghua and Zhejiang University also went to Stanford, JHU and Pennsylvania State University as professors. Even in the same laboratory, there is still a big difference after graduation, and personal factors are more important. Interested people will take the initiative to learn a lot of things, instead of passively relying on teachers to urge them.