00:11
All of this to say, I just wanted to speak English and Japanese mishmash, and Masako was there,
and then when Masako couldn't do it, I just tried to think of someone who can
do English and Japanese, and I know you're learning Japanese, so...
Hello, Len!
Is basically what happened.
What a transition right there. That was 10 out of 10.
I mean, like, there's not that many options.
No, no.
I mean, one, all of my friends who can speak Japanese and English.
Yeah, yeah, of course.
All of my friends who are also scientists, or have sort of
any kind of relationship with science research at some point in their lives, right?
Yeah.
And because if you hadn't realized, my podcast name is 英語でサイエンスしないと。
I did.
So it's like, we're trying to do science in English,
and like, but it's really not like an educational podcast, I think.
It's like, we're just really blurting out ideas most of the time.
It's a discussion, sort of like an attempt to let people feel comfortable entering the space,
right, with English and science.
Yeah, and also, I mainly want this podcast to be
serving as a way for free English learning material for
scientists who cannot dedicate a ton of separate time just for English learning.
And I listened to a ton of podcasts while I was doing grad school.
I don't even know how many hours I spent on, you know,
podcasting while I'm aligning the goddamn laser.
So I do think the research activity and podcasts kind of go well, like, hand in hand.
And podcast, if it's podcast, it's free.
And, you know, the new content shows up every week or, you know, at some frequency.
And, you know, it's not like you buy a book and you finish the book and that's it, right.
And like, I really do think podcast is a great way to learn English if you're like at
at least once you're done with the beginner's level, which most people have
cleared by the time they enter university, right?
In like, just standard Japanese education, I think gets you to like that level.
And as a researcher, you're probably doing way more advanced things than average
03:01
Japanese population.
So like, I mean, you read and write in English and you present in English.
So like, you're obviously solidly, if not above intermediate.
And there's really not much material for this kind of advanced intermediate people
in English podcast realm.
Like, all I hear, at least most of it, are just super, super, super beginner
or business English, like corporate English, like that type of, it's a different vibe.
And that's not how you want to talk about things if you're a researcher or scientist, you know.
But I recently got a message from a listener saying that she's a student and she's a PhD
student who is like listening to this podcast in hopes of studying abroad in future.
So that's super exciting.
And those are the kind of tiny seeds I want to plant through this podcast.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm worried.
The only thing that I am slightly concerned about is because I'm not used to speaking to
you in Japanese, the ratio of English and Japanese is just going to skew so much more
to English, which might serve the purpose better.
I don't know.
But I think I liked the fact that I can mix and match.
So can you just improve on your Japanese?
Your transition.
Can you just be better?
Can you just be better?
Is that something that you can do?
I didn't expect to have that question delivered to me.
But I have.
I mean, I've been thinking about that.
If I can respond to your sort of intention, right, for the podcast, I think filling that
space is really fantastic, right?
I mean, it's always hard to get something to reach the people that you're perhaps trying
to reach.
But you do seem to be connecting, right?
It seems so good, yeah.
With at least a subsection, right, of people.
And the because I so today, like I went back and I listened to a few more out of the sort
of podcast, right?
Just to get a feel right for how it was going and the conversational style around topics
that were both about experience.
So like what what's both you both of you had experienced sort of in the scientific space
and the science in some of those cases.
I mean, that especially I think the first one is what people want to talk about, right?
It's what people want to use language for to start conversations.
06:02
So, yeah, it's great to fill that space with this, you know?
Cool.
Yeah, I'm glad that you agree.
Yeah, I like I think it's, you know, I to speak on like my Japanese studies, right?
It's.
I know you've been studying.
Yeah, I think the the comfort you mentioned, the comfort per se, but the the use of English
that we are very comfortable with is going to be an interesting sort of barrier to change
to to sort of invert some space for Japanese.
One of the things that I've been working on here is sort of moving between the two.
But of course, it's still very skewed, right?
My Japanese is, you know, it's easy enough to be like, you know, somebody somebody speaks
to me in Japanese or asked me, can I understand?
It's like, oh, you know, and then the answer is like, but I would prefer
English if you have the chance, right?
Especially with the knowledge that the other person already speaks a decent amount of English.
Right.
So I've pushed myself in some ways and I'm doing some of that.
I don't, I expect my level to continue increasing.
Often when I would catch the little bit of Japanese in the previous podcast episodes,
it was fairly quick for me to either check my understanding or as I've sort of spent
time here to get an idea of what was intended without necessarily getting all of the words.
Right.
So the understanding is something that I can do in that space.
So if you were, for instance, to, you know, if you noticed that something was complicated
and you switched and like use Japanese to introduce maybe the concept, it wouldn't
throw me off.
It doesn't like distract me in any way.
That's good to know.
That's good to know.
I do fear that my like very bilingual way of using both languages is going to confuse
like your Japanese.
I will pause it for this particular moment that it's not something you need to concern
yourself with because if anything, I make it an effort to place Japanese into the language
that I'm using.
And so I'm already merging them in weird ways, right?
Or I'm trying to combine them.
My Japanese lessons are the best place for this where, you know, I attempt to frame something
in Japanese and then I'm like, okay, English, I guess for this particular part, because
I have no idea how to say it.
And then back to Japanese if I can like sort of try to finish it, right?
09:00
I mean, this might be a different kind of podcast than the listeners sign up for.
But we could answer your Japanese questions in English.
And because I did find that there are many sort of like, one of the like more culturally
interesting conversation happens when somebody asks me about customs or history or like
architecture or whatever, you know, in Japan.
And like, why is it like this?
Or how do you say that in Japanese type of conversation, right?
And I do feel like my English is like challenged to the next level when that kind of conversation
happens, because I am trying to find appropriate English explanations for things I don't always
know.
Like, why is Japan a Buddhist country?
I don't know.
My PhD is not in the history of Japan.
Are we?
Can we really say we're a Buddhist country?
Like, you know, a good chunk of us are like, you know, Shintoism and like, is Buddhism
really a religion?
Like, yeah, deep shit.
So that generates a whole new angle to a podcast, not even just like topic wise.
But I think it'll be interesting to like, or even just simple things like, you know,
things that you come across in Japanese, like grammar or words, word patterns.
I mean, to link this to sort of the brainstorming and the bit of background, right?
I mean, my interests are obviously related to language.
Like, I am by no means a linguist, but I certainly find it interesting to talk about, right,
how somebody learns language.
And, you know, part of my role is, you know, guiding students of Japanese who are trying
to better their English, right?
In terms of writing and speaking and whatever that might be.
So I like taking on and seeing how, from my perspective, how learning a language at this
particular stage, as well as just going through the learning process, matches with somebody
else, right?
Trying to either do it, or in your case, having done it.
And sort of, as you've already described, maybe it was much more difficult when you
were, you know, a Juyokusei-like student in terms of the challenge.
But at the same time, I'm getting a sense that there was a fluidity that was involved,
12:05
something that allowed you to kind of take all these pieces in and just mix them together,
which was possible in that.
Yeah, like I was still halfway through as a human being.
Yeah.
So it was fairly easy.
Seems like words.
Yeah, yeah.
I don't know.
Yeah, anyway, yeah.
So, but yeah, I guess we'll try to get your Japanese up to speed.
And while simultaneously providing a place for listeners to pick up on English, I think
it's interesting.
I mean, you are the real native speaker of English.
So this has become more legit in a way.
Oh no, I've been spotted.
Quick, run!
And they will find out, the listeners will find out what a messy English I've been speaking
thus far.
Oh, absolutely not.
And you can use this as your place to experiment your Japanese skills in the wilderness.
Yeah, where I can be, where I can personally be shown up by my own low level.
Very, very low level Japanese skills.
So I think it's actually good to remind people who are listening to this that language acquisition
is hard.
It's hard.
Yeah, it's hard.
And going from English to Japanese or Japanese to English, it's hard.
And I think people forget that because so many people speak English.
But it's still like, I want to say, it's not as difficult as a lot of people think,
but it's by no means it's easy.
It requires more, right?
It doesn't just, you know, you don't just pick it up and say, now I understand how to
speak this language.
You just continuously run into new and various spaces that you do not understand how to navigate.
It's just that you get that less in native languages.
I still do every day.
And so it's just like a lifelong thing.
But I think it's a good reminder for people to hear your verbal, audible struggle with
Japanese and remind themselves that, hey, this shit's hard.
That is what I try to remind people about every day.
And I don't just mean for Japanese, right?
It's hard.
I believe, yeah, we're coming up on that time.
15:01
This is a good place to stop.
I'm going to hit stop on the recording.
That's it for the show today.
Thanks for listening and find us on X at Eigo de Science.
That is E-I-G-O-D-E-S-C-I-E-N-C-E.
See you next time.
