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1. What prompted you decide to participate in the "JSPS Science Dialogue" program?
During the meeting of the JSPS fellows in Tokyo we were asked, if we want to participate in this program and as I am always interested in presenting my work to young people, I was happy to volunteer.
2. To what did you give greatest attention in preparing and giving the lecture?
Most important seemed to me that Japanese high school students might not (yet) be interested in the details of scientific investigations and, thus, I tried to limit my explanations to the general ideas of my past and current research. I also integrated a lot of videos, pictures, and animations to excite the students as much as possible. With letting them actively participate by administering a questionnaire I could not only gather valuable information for my own research, but could also make sure that the students not only have to listen to me all the time.
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?
Yes, take your Japanese wife and child with you, if possible! Well, I consider myself lucky that I could rely on my wifes ability to understand my English and my research so well that she could translate from time to time. I also prepared Japanese subtitles on all my slides (again with the help of my wife), which is definitely helpful for them to at least keep track of the general ideas.
4. Could you give your impression with regard to participating in this program?
We enjoyed very much to see how curious and attentive the students have been. Furthermore, I would like to thank the school teachers and JSPS for the very professional organization, which let us feel very comfortable.
5. Was it meaningful in terms of your fellowship activities?
I could even gather some additional results for my research. Currently, I am planning to do the same thing in my previous high school in Germany to compare the questionnaires' results later on. I also agreed to take part in this program again next year.
6. In what ways do you think the students benefited from the program?
Maybe the students are now even more motivated to think about becoming a researcher themselves. Even if not, they might have understood how important it is to learn English to exchange ideas with non-Japanese nationals—and possibly also marry one of them.
7. Could you give some overall advice or comments to future participants in the program?
On the one hand, 60 minutes can be a lot of time, especially so, if you have to listen to someone speaking English with a (German) accent, so better skip all unnecessary details. On the other hand, these students are clever and interested enough to notice the lack of scientific content, so you have to keep the balance. Accordingly, it took me much more time to prepare the presentation than I expected, but it was definitely worth the trouble.
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