00:11
So you went to outreach? You had an outreach activity today?
Yeah, this morning. Yeah, this morning. So I do have, sometimes we do outreach activities.
So I work in a research institute. Usually, there are no students. Well, some are students,
but not many. But so we have limited interactions with younger people,
tech students in general. But I really enjoy interacting with, for example,
middle school students, high school students. Yeah, very young generations of people.
Yeah, I don't think I've ever had an outreach experience with middle school students. It's
always been high school or above. Yeah. For me.
So I find it very interesting. And at the same time, I try not to
refuse these opportunities when I'm asked because I think it's very important to
not just share what we have found with
It's also important for 啓蒙活動. So you know what I do. So it's really important that people
have accurate information about, you know, with the scientific. So you're rotating. Okay.
正しい科学的知識を提供したいという気持ちもあって、誤解もいろいろある。
And at the same time, probably more than that is that I would like to share how it's so fun to do
science, you know, to younger students. It's really fun, right? We have freedom to think
about hypotheses. We can come up with new hypotheses and findings. It's so, so fun doing
research. So I'm like, yeah, so that's, I think that's one of my purposes to do outreach activities,
especially to younger students. And yeah, today they were probably one third of the audience was
03:13
very young people, I think. Well, what was the style of outreach? Did you go to classroom and
talk about your work? It was like in a cafe. In a cafe. So there's a, yeah, like there's a cafe
area with, it's a lounge, it's a lounge place on the first floor. We do have this space. So
today is a, how do you call it, open day event. Okay, like an open campus day. Yeah, open campus
day. So the whole research institute is open to 一般の方. So from the morning, there are so many
people coming in and visiting some labs and attending talk sessions. And mine was one of those,
but it's more like a casual style. So it's not like in a seminar rooms or class classrooms or
something. Right, it's not like you have a PowerPoint. I did have a PowerPoint, but it was
it wasn't like a scientific. It was more like, yeah, relaxed. Was it more like about your
career, like career trajectory, your life story? Or is it more like what you do as a researcher?
Yeah, it was more like science. It was about what we do. But more like tailored to the general
audience. Yeah, it's, I made it a little more easier for them to be able to get. What's the age
range? So like, if it's just open to everyone, then it's like everyone from little kids to their
parents. Yeah, like kids to parents. Yeah, it was very broad. It was very broad. But yeah,
that's pretty hard to tailor the talk to. Actually, today, today's session went
quite well, I think, because I got questions from many, many generations, like kids,
and also parents. Yeah, from both sides, and also students. So yeah, I got lots of responses
from those different generations. That's amazing. It was, it was quite fun. And then I also
noticed something very particular in Japan, is that middle school and high school students,
they ask lots and lots of questions when I give a talk. And probably college students, too.
Yeah. But after that, people, students, you know, after, from Daigakuin onward, they tend not to
speak up anymore in Japan. So it was quite the contrast to how people responded in the US,
06:05
because graduate students, they, you know, ask lots of questions. They, they make points.
I mean, they have their own thoughts. More than high school students? Yeah, what do you think? I
mean, somehow in Japan... I don't have a ton of experience, really. Yeah, I guess I don't,
I don't have a lot of experience of outreach activity to go off of, but I thought you were
gonna say that Japanese kids don't ask a lot of questions, compared to American kids. It tends to
get quieter, so over time. So, but you're saying that at the age of middle school and high school,
they're quite engaged, and they want to ask a lot of questions. Whereas once they get older,
they like, don't really ask questions. So I was wondering why?
Maybe they feel like they need to, like, sound smart, when they're asking questions.
Become shy. Yeah, whereas like, middle school and high school, like, nobody expects you to
understand, you know, your, like, pioneering research in neuroscience or whatever. And,
like, it's, it's not really expected at that age that they know anything about it. Whereas maybe
if you're college students, or grad student in the same area, they are scared, or not scared,
but like, they're a little bit more hesitant about sounding dumb. Like, they, they now feel
like they have, well, as a person who studies the subject one, I should know a bit more about this,
and I have to ask a good question. Right. I think, like, I understand that pressure though, because
like, it's not like I don't feel that pressure. But most of the time, those are just pressures
that I'm creating for myself, rather than real, like, anything. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, I mean,
most of the time, if you have a question, chances are somebody else in a room have also the same
kind of questions. And, yeah, like, I never really had an experience where I listened to somebody
else asking question be like, well, that was dumb question. Like, I never, I never had that
problem, right? Like, I never had that experience. So I think they'll occur, like, statistically
speaking, it's a lot rare to have people asking you dumb questions. But in your head, it's like
a weird cognitive bias, right? Like, you don't think others are dumb, asking dumb questions,
09:04
but you think you're asking dumb questions. Right. I do have that feeling, like, every time
when I ask questions, yeah, this could be, yeah, I still, yeah, very strong ones, every time,
you know, this could be a really dumb question. But, yeah, but anyway, I want to know. So why
don't I ask this question? Right. Yeah. And no one, you know, is upset about me asking dumb
questions. Exactly. It's helpful. It's helpful to, like, getting question as a speaker,
it's usually super helpful, because that means that somebody listened to your talk.
And, and if anything, you get an another chance at explaining some of the topics that maybe you
didn't have the time to spend a lot of time on, or you may have been too brief about explaining
this slice of the research. And by having somebody ask a question, you're like, well,
thanks for asking. I can go deeper into this topic on, you know, the stuff that I didn't get to talk
in a main talk. But, yeah, it's, it's, I feel like, I feel like that's it, though. Like, that's
why I think the daikokusei and daikokuinsei have a bit more self-consciousness about this type of
questions that they're asked. Whereas, like, yeah. My question for you, then, is how do I facilitate,
how do I self-consciousnessを克服してどうやってスピークアップをしてもらうか?
Like, I mean, I, okay, so here, here's my idea. I don't know how practical it is. And I don't know
how, how practically implementable it is. But I always feel like the best way to do it is by leading
by examples. So if you get to sit in a talk before you give your actual talk, like, maybe
you're sitting in somebody else's talk with the same audience, right? Your colleague is giving a
talk. And you ask, then, sort of, like, you show the, like, kind of, you set the tone of the level
of questions you're asking. So you ask something relatively simple, or, like, you ask them to,
rather than asking, like, inquiring question, ask clarifying question. So, like, can you go back to
that slide and explain to me about this figure, you know? And that kind of shows to the other
students that, like, oh, I am allowed to ask that kind of question, not necessarily thinking about
12:00
next experiment, or thinking, like, coming up with, like, not necessarily the deepest question.
But, like, clarifying questions are just as important. Yeah. And if you can show them to the
audience that that's a legitimate question, I think it brings the hurdle of the question a little
bit lower. That, I think, but again, like, you know, you don't always have that chance, right?
You don't, you might not get to ask a question. Especially, yeah, especially when I'm doing
outreach activities. I might be the only person. Maybe you can invite them to ask, like, when you,
at the end of your talk, you go, do you have any questions? Do you have any concepts you want me to
go over again? Please let me know. Like, like, leave, like, direct them for, like, low-hanging
fruits questions. Yeah. And then see if any takers are there. So maybe I can ask questions
to me, to myself. For example, you may wonder why this happened.
Here's the answer to your question. So, it's just. That's a little awkward, though.
But, yeah, like, something, something along the line of showing by example, like, inviting them
for the question. Yeah, if we had a sakura. Yeah, yeah, maybe you need to, like, plant a sakura in
there and be like, like, let him or her ask a relatively straightforward question to, like,
make people feel comfortable. Yeah, yeah, I need sakura. Okay. Yeah, I think so. Yeah,
I think that's what you do. You get there with, like, a coffee and, you know, just plant sakura.
I'll change my voice. And then I have my own. You become your own sakura.
I think people are going to, like, suspect, I don't know, like, a personality disorder more
than anything. I won't be invited as a speaker anymore. Yeah, you might, you might be like,
yeah, like, slightly unstable. I won't do that then.
Yeah, but yeah, yeah, get your sakura, get your student, get your, like, actual grad student
to, like, ask, like, a straightforward question and then get the question rolling there. Actually,
I didn't do this myself, but I was told when I did my defense that I should plant a sakura
15:00
in the audience. Yeah. Like, half my classmates ask me a question that I already sort of know
the answer to. Like, they know that I know the answer to. So they ask the question to, like,
basically make me look good. I didn't do that in the end. But I was told that if that's your
first question that you managed to answer very well, then the rest of the questions sort of
becomes easier to answer, kind of, because you're so nervous, right, at the defense.
And if the first question that you get asked is extremely difficult question, then you might get
all flustered and you cannot answer the rest of the other questions. You might also be, like,
still in, like, an anxious, hyper anxious mode then. But if the first one is from someone you
know, someone who already knows what you know, that's kind of helpful just to, like, get the
ball rolling and be like, oh yeah, I can answer this question. Do you have it? Does anyone else
have other questions? You know? So, yeah, maybe it works both ways. Like, Sakura works for the
audience as well as for the speaker. So we should hire more Sakura. I think that's the
conclusion of the talk. That's it for the show today. Thanks for listening and find us at
EigoDescience on Twitter. That is E-I-G-O-D-E-S-C-I-E-N-C-E. See you next time!
