サバティカルの考え方
level of confidence I would like to start us with an おたより. We have an inbox by the way if you
haven't noticed if you're new here we have an inbox that's open to everybody you don't have to
share us any information if you don't want to right or you can say hi or ask english questions
or japanese questions or just you know complain about your life and let us know if you if you
want us to share your thoughts here on the episode and thankfully this person have agreed to let us
share her message on the public airwave so here we go yeah um i think to just to double check uh
so they are open to us sharing their name and the podcast they are from yes okay yes yes okay so
there we go okay goes hi asami and then this is nai-chan from 35歳右に行くか左に行くか
so we know her hey and bracket we also have an english title age 35 which way to go which is like
a pretty catchy nice yeah title that i did not know that they had it certainly draws in that sort
of like uh how do they i don't know 30歳35歳 yeah there's like the the 30s what's that 30s word
the 30s folks right being like what do i do with my life right that sort of yeah it's like a belated
midlife crisis uh delayed puberty however when you wait wait wait wait wait all right i'm not
gonna sidebar this all right but did you just call like 30s your belated midlife crisis
because because isn't it like an early sorry sorry i i was thinking i was thinking quarter
life okay okay i was like dang like you're that's really that's pretty harsh right like that's
i mean who knows maybe i only plan to live until 50
and this is like a delayed belated midlife crisis for me i did not in any way
intend to make this message go to such a dark place um all right let me continue i will let
you she's not done with no she's not i'm looking forward to it here we go yes she she has she's not
just saying hi to us she has an agenda i'd like nai-chan likes to ask for your advice regarding
my future options for a sabbatical leave that's pretty serious yeah i'm a political scientist
focusing on a country in asia however due to the current political situation it has become
very difficult to visit and conduct a field work there i am summarizing this a little bit
so i came up with another option going to the united states instead so instead of this asian
country she's going to go to the u.s since the u.s is one of the most advanced places for political
science spending my sabbatical there would work well for me i have also lived there for two years
during my phd so i am familiar with the research environment but with a capital but the situation
also feels uncertain now yeah nai-chan is very uncertain right now um as you know the current
president is pushing policies like make america great again blah blah blah to secure a peaceful
sabbatical i am now rethinking where i should go both of you have experience in academia in the u.s
were born there well you were born there uh have lived there for a long time yeah i'd say a pretty
long time for me as well you know almost 10 years um i'd love to hear your thoughts about
the current situation and if you have any other recommendation for sabbatical destinations i'd
be very grateful i've already given up my first priority uh you know her main country in asia
and second the u.s is like you know kind of not really on the table anymore from what it sounds
like and now i'm joking that i might just choose a sabbatical destination by lottery
um so please share your recommendations i might actually pick one best nature thanks nai-chan
that was that was a great uh and well it had nothing to do with how i almost derailed us
at the beginning so my apologies again nai-chan for for almost derailing this conversation
アメリカの政治情勢
um so yes yes so i mean i think um first of all neither of us are political scientists we're just
regular scientists right uh yes so and and also none of neither of us are sort of purely academic
in a sense that we both work in a university or something like that right well you work in
a university but like in a different capacity than like a hundred percent research staff right
yeah there's oh yeah that's right so entirely research staff in uh in her position i guess
yeah she doesn't teach it's been a while right yes okay so yeah we are in related if not like
not identical situations yeah yes yeah like i think we both know people who have gone on
sabbatical yes uh but we ourself have not been on sabbatical even though we very much wish even
though we both want it um yeah yeah um i i have i have a story for my unsolicited uh sabbatical
that happened more recently but that's that's that's a story for another episode it may it
may very well turn into be the next episode depending on how this right yeah well let's just
focus on night jump for now um so she can't go to asia she can't go to her primary country of choice
and the second choice of us is like looking a little less peaceful than she wants it to be
サバティカルの計画
and i'm guessing that sabbatical is like about a year so that's a that's a you know decent
length of time to consider going this yeah yeah yeah so right it will be for as a sabbatical is
it's for a fair stretch of time yeah like she would need maybe even an apartment lease yes she
might have to like you know actually live there uh is is the concern hence wanting to choose a place
where she has a little bit more visa security than the current state of the u.s and i don't blame her
um not not the most welcoming country at this very minute um no um
to add a little bit here i did just scan the message again uh quote coming up within the
next two years the sabbatical uh so within that say two-year time span it's still sitting likely
within the current political environment so that is an important yeah yeah for this and also
yeah that's that's a good good good thing to bring up i kind of just like glossed it over but um
i think that means she has time to plan so she doesn't have to like go in like the next couple
months she has a year to two years to plan this sabbatical yeah exactly that's a that's a plus
yep um however having said that and coming from a very biased point of view of not finding u.s to
be particularly welcoming right now um i'm assuming that she's going to bring her own money
like own research fund to bring her to the sabbatical whether it's university funded or
otherwise so in that sense she might be like more secure than she thinks um although you know when
it comes to visa whether you bring in money or not is like not really a consideration and um
i have to say off the countries i've lived in my entire life u.s visa process was the most
stressful even though i was only looking for a student visa you know i was not looking for
anything that stayed any longer but basically you know this was the most stressful inexpensive visa
that i've have had to get um so but let's let's like expand our imagination so if she's if it's
not the primary country if it's not the u.s where could you possibly suggest i would say
this was a bit of a joke uh in my mind when it first came up but i'm i think i'm coming around
to it being slightly more serious in response to quote i might just choose my sabbatical destination
by lottery lol end quote um if the particular maybe political issues currently in discussion
aren't the most primary reason to go for the sabbatical right like if there isn't a i really
want to go somewhere which is uh at like the beginnings of conversation around lgbtq plus
rights right like if there isn't a specific focus on a topic being done in that space
then it might be worth right just looking at any of the regions which you know perhaps are at the
moment more stable so to speak um and just kind of picking one and taking a look and saying oh
maybe this is interesting right the you know the political structure is slightly different
from what i've experienced before maybe i could go and be a part of you know this organization
or something here uh for for a little bit of time if the topic is really important
then i guess i would start with the topic first right i would i would wonder what is it about
maybe the originally some of the uh countries in asia that were just drawing the curiosity
um versus say what even in the united states was drawing it right because there is
if one wants to be i'm going to say involved or let's say let's say be around the sort of
flow that the united states is going through politically that is a that is a huge experience
to have it isn't necessarily the most comfortable or safe one to be a part of but it is certainly a
big like full of topics that one could watch like try to be unraveled here one could get their hands
on um but yeah if it's topic based then i would wonder what that topic is first and then pick a
place based on that yeah yeah yeah no i i don't know the full extent of her um research topic
and i don't think she talks about it on her own podcast so i'm gonna withhold from saying
any more details about her research topics specifically yeah that was a question mainly
to nichon as a if this hasn't been a question that's what i would ask yeah um but you raise
a good point that it is possible perhaps to find other locations that have parallel movements
political movements to the you know problem of her interest um or maybe at a different stages
of this you know particular phase of political up uprising or i don't know what it is but like
you know some phase of the movement i'm sure there are other countries maybe in a different
uh scale or maybe to a different extent are experiencing similar or at least comparable
problem right and she could go from there i am reading her um what that be and saying that i'm
just guessing the reason why she picked us sounds like it's not necessarily to do with topic
she's like well my topic is one thing but the u.s is some of the most advanced places for
サバティカルの目的と選択
political science uh it's what she said right so yes you know okay so if sort of being in like the
if if the sabbatical has more of a networking aspects to it then um uh doing sort of like a
fieldwork type research perhaps uh one can sort of open up a lot of options right so maybe for
networking it's more important that um she can speak the language of over there or maybe it's
more important that she has freedom of moving around because in some parts of the world you
know you need to be chauffeured everywhere it's unsafe for a woman to travel alone and um those
things might come into considerations right so maybe she wants to she would want to pick somewhere
that's like very academically active in political science may not necessarily have exact sort of
topic overlap with what she's doing right so if that's the case i can imagine that you know she's
pretty fluent in english so she can go to any of the english-speaking countries right like
uk australia new zealand what have you um singapore you know also speaks like english is
one of their uh public languages um many uh many parts of the world where like english is not like
recognized official language but a lot of people speak very fluently so maybe those would also work
um i personally want to recommend maybe um like maldives or like tahiti like that sounds really
fun as a sabbatical destination um all that i like is this because yeah why why is this why are
you recommending well i heard that there's great beach there and um the living cost is pretty low
yeah and yeah i mean like i agree i agree um i heard great things about thailand and vietnam as
well i personally also wouldn't mind going back to mongolia like i said before that's true yeah
actually you know what night and just just go towards mongolia i mean asami i'll meet you
there you can ride horses and talk about politics oh my god that's a sabbatical so i
would love that if she's in mongolia i will 100 visit her and the horses we can like a ride
yeah and and we can you know ride horses and discuss about the current politics
i love this this is great okay yep yep oh man okay in all all seriousness i think um
i think i think the the early idea that you raised about finding a place where you can find
like a you know sort of you can bring in your existing framework to of like her research is
one option the other option is you're going to forget about the actual progress in your research
topic closely and you're going to worry more about networking finding good collaborators and usually
good collaborators are not always the people who are doing the same exact thing as you're doing
you know your good collaborators are typically someone who's doing something slightly different
and in that sense maybe she wants to pick the country based on how safely she can move around
and how well she can get around language wise culturally wise you know um i think those are
pretty solid advice no i think so i mean there are questions right like you know um yeah ones
アメリカのリスク考慮
ones that i hope are are helpful i think you've really brought up some some crucial ones in terms
of addressing the not only the purpose of the visit right whereas i was like here's a question
that might be what are you interested in to actually be like you know kind of around politically
speaking but i think it's important especially from your end to to know what is it that you are
going there for and what types of i don't want to say just comforts but part of it is comforts but
also like what types of environments are you looking to to be in right um right you know right
yeah yeah uh i think those are those are grand questions i hope that they're helpful um for
naichan i would i'd love to say more things uh in the in the sense of going to the u.s uh i can
certainly think of i mean we can talk about that too i mean one of the things that she suggested
is that we both have experience living in the u.s what you what would you say for a japanese
political science scholar to come and visit the u.s of a i mean i think she has the right
mentality here which is caution right um i get a feeling from and this is obviously i'm not living
there right now right so the only thing i get is through the lens of a variety of news reports right
and like you know information sharing uh you know instagram accounts and stuff right it's like
so to to put a small version of what i think is happening there in a position that is
is shall we say separated from like you know the the larger population of the states
separated from the groups that are under persecution in the states you'd probably be
fine right like because there is this boxing in still of like particular groups are the ones
being targeted however if you are yourself coming in as a foreigner to the u.s there is a level of
risk associated with that because the system is currently looking to villainize uh everything that
留学先のリスクと選択肢
doesn't fit a particular image um and i'm saying this as sort of lightly as possible but yeah you
are at risk by going to the states however right if one is really driven to go the real thing is
that for most of the positions you might find yourself in there you are not likely to be
immediately accosted by the system but there are definitely roles where you would be um
and those are the ones that you've seen you know examples of at university settings for say graduate
students that are international students who are basically very close to a lot of the sensitive
points you know basically and quite vulnerable as well yes um right uh and this
it's something to be cautious about right um i i yeah tell nichon being you know a professional
in the world of political science right in in her own sort of career is in a much better position
to make probably uh judgment calls on this uh i can share what i've told you know students who
have considered you know studying abroad in the states and have since changed their minds
which is like don't you know like go go somewhere else right now unless unless you are personally
driven to really sit in like this sort of mess right like the chaos the the political
nuancy you know uh no real rule following it's more like rule generating and bantering and and
hammering of ideologies you know if you want to to be in that then the u.s is the place to be
uh if you don't want to be i mean it is kind of the heart of the action right yeah exactly and it's
you know there are other places that are hearts of the action but are much more immediately lethal
to a lot of people this is like technically still at the again at the outside of the immediately
threatened groups um it still feels as if it's disconnected so there's that that was a lot i feel
like that's maybe too much to to add to this question here but um yeah well um yeah i i mean
i yeah i have i have nothing extra to add here in that um you know ultimately she's the one who
makes the judgment call but like i'm sensing that she's like very hesitant to consider us at
this point in the options um so yeah just like go to sweden you know if you have other options
yeah go somewhere more fun go to go to like one of the top ranked you know quote unquote happiness
index you know countries or something like go to denmark i don't know just just to get a yeah
just to get like a feeling of right like you're looking at all these countries and the political
situations and it's like why are we struggling so much and you can go see another place that
struggles in different ways right and maybe it's like yeah that's that could be a fun change of
pace right uh i don't know how good these uh political stability charts are by the way i found
a couple of those by you know world population review and u.s news and like you know you know
sweden denmark they're pretty they're pretty high up there greenland greenland is apparently
very stable it's also pretty empty of people though so i don't know if i'd recommend that's
what i was saying i was like um are there people there there are people there there are definitely
people there um you know but a lot of europe is probably middling right in terms of like
stability and strings and stuff um portugal is a great that's a pretty cool place um
you know but i again i don't know much about the yeah nuance there but yes i think there are plenty
of places to go mostly if you're looking for that sort of quote unquote comfort comfortable space
having english and japanese at least for languages having a relative stability level
that is more familiar even to like a sort of japanese cultural mindset then maybe bits of
bits of europe and stuff would be would be the place to go um yeah otherwise uh pick
a vacation destination that you've always wanted to go yeah enjoy your holiday on university money
um claim that this is a necessary restorative process to optimize your brain power
and yeah cut cut what asami said in the first part of her statement and just make it clear
that it is a necessary restorative process for you to go to laos for instance and like
you know just go to bali i don't know and hey don't get me wrong these places definitely have
political like curiosity i mean this is to have a whole environment the tension is you can you can
find it anywhere yeah i think it's up to her to sort of pick the particular flavor of politics
that she's interested in um my brain is trying so hard we clearly don't know what we're talking
about when it comes to politics no no no i have i have a lot of like you know u.s specific like
trouble awareness markers but i don't have any political insight into other countries
all i and my brain just spent time thinking about like how do i make a joke out of you know
like if the you know the tension is uh is like thick enough to cut a knife you know there's
another yeah my english videos are broken yeah that version um i was trying to think like you
know the tension right within like this sort of tropical islands it's like you know the tensions
are strong enough to melt your margarita or something right um it's like you know something
yeah don't don't worry about it just this is the oh she can go to the love island love love that's
a lot of pain that's a lot of tension right there that's a lie i mean that yeah i don't know exactly
what it is but i'm certainly sure it's gotta be you don't know you don't you don't you don't know the
the famous tv series jeez oh my god it's it's like a it's it's another relationship type reality tv
show complete trash show uh but it is what the entirety of uk is like was entertained by during
the summer my god no i had no idea about this all right i don't know where they are like physically
you know in the real space on earth like where where they are in the world but um
let's see oh okay all right there was a british series called love island and then there was love
island usa okay all right where we're not talking about the love island usa because you still
probably need a visa you're right yeah like we've look we sidetracked right at the end i think we did
サバティカルの計画
a good job uh night on i really i hope that you enjoy and find a way to way to curve force correct
us to to like really find a place that will at least be somewhat interesting right but will also
be a little bit of a break from everything you're doing right now um that's hopefully what the
sabbatical turns out to be uh but of course you know and let's go camp in mongolia yeah and that's
really the answer right is to go to mongolia that's that's the that's the answer that's that's
what was decided we have a definitive conclusive answer yeah done yeah from from non-experts so
all right hope it helps my job yeah yeah good luck all right bye bye that's it for the show
today thanks for listening and find us on x at egode science that is e-i-g-o-d-e-s-c-i-e-n-c
see you next time
