When Angel commented on my blog that she was at her lowest, I didn't know that she was really feeling down.
Anyway, it is a relief to read that a few friends (fishfish and gang, that is) 'saved' her from doing the unthinkable over the Golden Week.
Yes, being a student, especially a graduate student in Japan can be pretty tough.
Especially, when one is not good with the language.
For me, the master course was ok.
But the doctorate was like a killer...
I was regularly ignoring my meals, and working non-stop.
I kind of like, 'zombimized' myself.
I experienced frequent fainting spells.
Many a time when I laid on the futon, my body was so flaccid that I swore to myself that if I close my eyes now, I would not be able to wake up the next day.
That is, I die in my sleep...
I knew my stomach walls were scraped paper-thin.
One day, while slurping ramen (Japanese 'Chinese' noodles) in the cafeteria, I felt a sudden jolt in my brain.
It was like a strong punch... P'NNNNGGG!
Immediately I headed to the Red Cross Hospital.
The doctor, when he saw my facial expression, said, 'you look like you are afraid to die'.
I said, 'yes' and that I felt my veins burst in my brain.
He said, 'if that happened, you will not be sitting here'.
I then went for a full medical check up.
The doctor said, 'ten percent chance of stomach cancer... need further tests...'
While waiting for the test results, many friends worried for me, saying 'you obviously don't look well'.
My savior was my missus.
She nursed me back to the good health I am enjoying now.
Now that I am a student advisor in the university, I get quite a bit of queries from students wishing to come to Japan.
I am in the social science; Angel is in the hard sciences(?).
I thought social science was bad, and that the hard sciences was okay.
But, looks like it is equally bad on that side too.
Communicating with the Japanese professors was such a monumental problem.
There is a lot of truth in the Japanese being lousy communicators.
Their language is considered a 'high context' language where one can just mumble an 'aaah' and the conversation partner would know exactly what that means.
I say to the prospective students; come for the masters, and do your PhD somewhere else...
Gardening, photography, food, fishing, traveling, scuba diving, life in Japan, plus of course, news and views of being away from home...
wow... i am so popular! have been appearing in your blog and in fish fish's blog twice. also very "wanted" at university. Yeah, my friends to give me alot of advise. The wonderful part of being away from home is that you are able to make lots of friends from malaysia and also internationally. They saved me from doing the unthinkable. But I guess I might still do the unthinkable mainly because I am left without a choice. I have recommended the scholarship to many of my friends. I even have a close friend who came this April. I am sure all these stories will keep her thinking as well. Now, I am really not sure if I made the right decision when I came. And all these while I thought Life Science was though... I didn't know that social science is just as tough. So the conclusion would be..... from my part, do your masters and PhD elsewhere....if you do not want to end up being anti-japanese. SIGH.......
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about studying hard or get into that kind of trouble. But I noted the 'she nursed me back to health'. Awww...so romantic! I got a male colleague who married the nurse who...yeah, you guessed it right, nursed him back to health too. Okok, this kpc is outta here.
ReplyDeleteNothing in the world comes easy i gues..
ReplyDeleteBut i guess we have to understand that health is of topmost importance.
A failed degree can be redone... but not a failed heart.
Just my two cents !
"Their language is considered a 'high context' language where one can just mumble an 'aaah' and the conversation partner would know exactly what that means." <--- ouh man, i agreeeee... sooooo agree... but i'm sure ur used to the nuaces by now right??
ReplyDeleteanyways, i think this whole being away from home student experience is true no matter where you go to study (of course it'd be much worse if you end up in a country where u can't communicate well and the culture is way different)... I think my brother and i really messed up our eating after we came here to america.... can eat 1 meal a day or 6 a day depending... and it's not just the food, it's the whole being alone, 24/48/72 hours locked up inside the room with no contact with anyone... blah...
but anyway, i feel that's when u grow up...
and i admire people who are willing to go to a foreign country (such as Japan) and not even being able to communicate well in the language either..... gosh, it's already lonely here in america knowing english, what more when everything is foreign to u...
I salute your courage. I've never thought doing a phd or master in a Japan would be so difficult. I guess the main problem is the language. Besides, Japanese are much more hardworking than us. (correct me if i'm wrong) My host sister told me that her husband works till very very late i.e. midnight and leaves home early in the morning for work. In 1999, my host mom had a christmas party. The husband came in much later than all of us, and he brought his work together with him! That was something new to me!
ReplyDeleteCurrently i am considering taking my PHD, hope that you can give me some advise. I felt like in Malaysia, with a PHD, there would be no job or no ppl that is willing to hire me. Maybe the situation in Japan is a bit different. During these few weeks, my mood was constantly down, i don't have enough sleep and i did not eat well, i am in my final weeks of my master studies. I am just exhausted and frustrated with all the worlk load, yet each day i need to carry one. Life had become so meaningless for me, and everyone around me spend around 16 hours per day just studying.
ReplyDeleteAngel... great to see back in good spirits... let's now look forward to hearing your friend's rendition of being and getting lost in the long, dark tunnel in Japanese academia....
ReplyDelete5xmom... yeap, I thank my lucky stars every day for 'ending up' with my partner... without her, I would be just another clueless 'sanabagan' in town... lately, she started to home-bake bread and I am ecstatic about it...
Krishna... true, true... when a young bull ah, 'good health' is not in the vocabulary... but once become old dog time ah, the spare tires become big and then, start to worry lah...
Elaine... a belated 'thank you' for being (probably) the first one to comment on my blog... can't recall if the topic was on animal reproduction or something... Yes, I am now quite immersed into this 'ooh' and 'aah' thingy here... in a way, it is a convenient manner to communicate... save energy, yet can shoot the same message across... as you experienced in your homestay, the Japanese people are really hardworking... and, I would add, they put a lot of pride in their job, be it the road sweeper or the taxi man... the guys who live in my apartment regularly come home at past midnight... sometimes could hear them showering at past two AM... don't know if you had read my previous post called Japanese people overwork, ILO points out...
(http://lronglim.blogspot.com/2004/11/japanese-people-overwork-ilo-points.html )
Mr kiasu... are you kidding? I had the impression that you are working in KL already... living comfortably, earning big bucks, two drivers, two housemaids, two gardeners, and having a good time dating your charbor while sharing one bowl of Nissin noodle... romantic leh... if you do PhD ah, maybe you will shine if you concentrate on the blog topics you have been highlighting... all you need to do is to crack your head to come up with an impressive 'theory' on why KL people think like this, and act like that...
Aiyoh, so sorry… The grogginess from yesterday's heavy workload is probably still in me... Didn’t read properly that ‘Elaine’ is not ‘Eileen’ and vice versa. Dei! My sincere apologies to both of you… Anyway, Eileen, I thank you very much for commenting on one of my first blog entries some time ago…
ReplyDeleteWei~ Don't overwork ar~ Saw ur last post said "feel like I almost die in my sleep". Scary! This was actually happened to some of the people in Japan while sleeping. Believe it or not? I sleep 8hr per day. Nothing can disturb me with my sleep, it is the most precious time I appreciate. :P
ReplyDeleteeileen: I hope you read this. NOT every Japanese are hardworking. Their long hr working do not equal to their effectiveness. Like the guy sitting next to me, he can stay in the lab for 14hrs sometimes, with the books in front of him, but his eyes close totally into his dream. He is only making himself more exhausted.
Ok FF... will relak alreadea... that happened about 10 years ago, the almost die thing... these days, I love to sleep early... if someone calls me after 10.00 pm, GRRRRR...
ReplyDeleteeileen... if you read this... FF is right also... you do come across some lazy Japanese once in a while...
Isnt doing Masters equally as difficult in Japan? I think most of the courses are in Japanese? I am exploring that opportunity but am afraid to apply because my Japanese is elementary.
ReplyDeletemystic... actually, depending on your luck... if you get a 'good' supervisor who can communicate with you in English, you will probably cruise through... trick is, it may be hard to be lucky... if you are seriously thinking about doing your masters in Japan, I encourage you to try applying for the Japanese government scholarship...
ReplyDeleteHello sensei and other. After 6 years in Japan, now only I found an interesting blog of Malaysian in Japan. Would love to meet you one day.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand you feeling during taking PhD. I had almost the same experience.
I nearly gave up my PhD. Not once but several times. I guess I am lucky that my hard core sensei here is my motivator. And I am also lucky I have my parents back in Malaysia to listen and advice me. I think, not only in Japan, but also elsewhere in the country, taking PhD is really difficult. Its just that Japan come with quite a hard core package of toughness.
To me, the reward was worth it. you will be surprised on how strong, tough you have become. and also wiser too.
Good evening, nice to hear from you... and thank you for coming by my blog... I guess that you have finished your phd by now... and I suppose you are working now in Japan... yes, about the difficulty of doing the phd in Japan and the rewards, you said it well... anyway, good luck to you in whatever you are doing now... :=)
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