Past Lectures: Case introduction

Comments from Dr. Klein

1. What prompted you decide to participate in the "JSPS Science Dialogue" program?

I wanted to experience how teaching in Japan is. In future, I would like to be a professor for physics, so I am interested in all kind of teaching

2. To what did you give greatest attention in preparing and giving the lecture?

I tried to explain physics with easy words. I chose impressive experiments to make students like science. It was important for me to explain how scientific research is important for future technology.

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?

The most difficult thing for me was to know if they understand or not my talk because they are shy to ask question in English. I think that using pictures and give them some documents can help very much, in particular for new vocabulary and technical terms.

4. Could you give your impression with regard to participating in this program?

It was a good experience for me to understand again more the Japanese culture.

5. Was it meaningful in terms of your fellowship activities?

JSPS is doing so much for fellows, it is normal for me to help a little by participating in this program.

6. In what ways do you think the students benefited from the program?

There are two benefits for students

1. Students can here English from a non Japanese person, which is different. For example, if they want to study abroad (university) they have a first idea of how it is different form Japanese lecture.
2. Students can see how research is interesting and hopefully they will join university of science.

7. Could you give some overall advice or comments to future participants in the program?

I suggest JSPS to ask fellows who are doing research in science (physics, chemistry, biology.) to have a lecture. The reason is that universities have less and less students in these sections. So, we need to explain them how it is interesting. Fellows should always talk about applications. Students want to know the goal of our research.