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1. What prompted you decide to participate in the "JSPS Science Dialogue" program?
By going through the JSPS brochure on Science Dialogue Program, I realized that students are enthusiastically taking part in such programs and they are immensely benefited by the presentations of the researcher which would help them in molding their career towards science and technology research in Japan. I am also interested to interact with them and give them some information regarding the cultural aspects of my home country and the nature of research I am doing.
2. To what did you give greatest attention in preparing and giving the lecture?
My first priority was to make the presentation as simple as possible so that students in High School level, who are not proficient in English, could follow it with ease. Therefore I included cultural aspects of my home country with lots of attractive pictures in the beginning of the presentation so that the students would feel comfortable. In the technical part of the presentation also, I included lots of simple pictures to make the students understand the contents without much difficulty. I did not include so many sentences in each slide so that students would get enough time to understand the written portions in the slides
3. Did you find it difficult to give a lecture in English to Japanese students? Could you give some advice to future lecturers on how to facilitate communication with Japanese students?
I took it as a challenge to communicate the students in English. Since they have studied English and the teacher in Tsuru High School also spoke to them in English in the beginning of the presentation, I realized that if I speak slowly, word by word, with lots of pictures in the slides, it might not be a big problem for the students to follow what I am talking.
I also sent the contents of my presentation beforehand to the school and the teacher-in-charge took the printout and distributed among the students. I believe that this is an important point which can be born in mind for the future lecturers. Give the contents of the presentation (slide-by-slide) beforehand, at least one week in advance, so that the students can read them and understand. Then they will not feel uncomfortable when the lecturer gives the actual presentation. Giving them in advance the printout of the slides would also help them in understanding the nature of the presentation. Frequent interactions with the teacher-in-charge of the school would also help the lecturer in preparing the slides. In my case, the teachers advised me to include culture aspects of my home country, photographs etc. so that I could shape the presentation in that way.
During my presentation, the teachers were keen to know the mood of the students. Whenever they find that the students are finding it hard to follow what I was talking, they alerted the interpreter. That helped me a lot.
4. Could you give your impression with regard to participating in this program?
I enjoyed each and every moment of this program, right from the beginning of the preparation of the presentation material to the end of the presentation. It is a very good program to generate a scientific awareness among the High School Students, which may help, at least some of the students, to choose research as their future career. Since JSPS fellows are from various countries and from various cultural backgrounds, this program would help the students to know more about other countries and cultures.
5. Was it meaningful in terms of your fellowship activities?
Sure. When we need to interact with High School Students about our research, we need to think in simple terms. That process itself will give more clarity to our research program. In a way, this program helped me in answering questions regarding my research in very simple ways.
6. In what ways do you think the students benefited from the program?
Through the Science Dialogue Program, the students are getting a very good opportunity to know about the latest research activities going on in Japan. This may help them in generating interest towards research. Such an effort is beneficial for the country as well. The students are also getting a chance to know more about the cultural aspects of the participant's home country.
7. Could you give some overall advice or comments to future participants in the program?
Notify the participants well in advance so that they may get enough time for the preparation and also for sufficient communication with the school authorities. A group of participants and corresponding schools can be selected initially (6 months or 1 year in advance) so that the participants can start collecting the data well in advance. I am not sure how much practical it would be, but knowing the common interests of the students regarding the contents of presentation through the teachers may help the participant to make the presentation more interactive and lively. Also, advice the school to arrange the presentation in such a way that the students may get enough time to personally interact with the lecturer after the presentation and question-answer session.
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