From The Field | 2013-18
2013 | Thomas Dallyn | Hokkaido University
Thomas Dally was selected as a MEXT Scholar for the year 2013. He completed the initial MEXT term and has now been accepted to extend his study and complete his PhD at Hokkaido University.
My name is Thomas Dallyn and I'm currently a MEXT scholar and 2nd year PhD student in Linguistics at Hokkaido University's Graduate School of Letters. I hope that this piece can shed a little light on postgraduate life here, both in Japan generally and Hokkaido in particular.
Why Hokkaido?
I studied Japanese as part of my bachelor's degree, and chose to spend my 3rd year as an exchange student at Hokkaido University of Education. What attracted me initially is that it seemed to be a really good environment to improve my language skills. With there being relatively few other native English speakers around, at least relative to Japan's other major cities, it was much easier to break out of my comfort zone and come to rely more on my Japanese. After finishing up my master's degree back in the UK and entering the MEXT programme, I chose to continue my studies at Hokkaido University (or Hokudai, as it's usually known).
Obviously the main concern when choosing your institution will be the department and your supervisor, but for me the prospect of returning to Hokkaido was also a huge draw. Every year, Hokkaido gets voted as the prefecture in which the Japanese themselves would most like to live, and its appeal isn't hard to understand. Even in the main cities, you're never much more than a half hour's bus ride away from the incredible natural environment, dotted with hot springs, wetlands, forests and lakes. Sapporo in particular, where Hokudai has its main campus, combines large open spaces with a very reasonable cost of living, making it a relaxed and comfortable place to study. The flat terrain and wide streets in the centre of town also make it a great city to cycle around, at least from spring to autumn.
The only major drawback is the notoriously long, harsh winter – snowfall starts in earnest from about mid-December, and won't clear up until early April. Most apartments and dormitories will be centrally heated, though, so you won't have to make do with a kotatsu and hot drinks as you might elsewhere. Invest in some good boots, keep active with some winter sports, and it's not unbearable. Personally I find the weather during the rest of the year makes up for it, with cool summers and no rainy season, but it may be worth bearing in mind if you're really not keen on the cold.
The only real disadvantage for me is just how far it is from the mainland – if you hear about an interesting seminar or workshop being held, it's unlikely that you'll be able to hop on a train and attend. However, there is plenty of financial support available for travel if you apply for it, so it just requires some planning in advance. It's also less of a problem in the summer, when many conferences make their way north to escape the Honshu heat.
After two years, how's your life in Japan?
Of course, your academic life will vary massively depending on your institution, department, supervisor, and especially on your level of Japanese, but I hope this outline will help explain one possible angle on the Japanese university experience.
After the first year as a research student, cramming language classes for the entrance exam and trying to get up to speed with all the rhythms and expectations of a new department, the transition to a full doctoral student has been a welcome one. The workload is heavier, but the programme at the Graduate School of Letters encourages a high degree of independent research, which means a good deal of freedom as to how I structure my study. This includes planning my own fieldwork, helping organise workshops, and auditing classes that look to be interesting or helpful. This is by no means universal, however, and some supervisors will place heavy expectations on attendance hours in the lab.
The one constant of university life here is the research group. Each research group, in my case consisting of around 10 research students, master's students and doctoral students, usually meets once a week, with students required to present their research to the group. One staff member may supervise students working on a wide range of subjects, so while my own work focuses on the intonation of Japanese dialects, there are others studying passive constructions in Korean, or the phonology of loanwords in Teochew.
This allows you to keep up with developments outside your usual research area, as well as letting you receive feedback from perspectives you might not have considered. The downside to this focus on your own research group, however, is that your contact and opportunities for cooperation with other labs can be pretty limited, even within the same department, so you'll probably need to make a specific effort to seek them out.
As regards life outside work, although the university offers all sorts of clubs, circles and societies, these often require more time commitment than your average PhD student is able to spare, and so tend to be largely made up of undergraduates. Rather, a lot of the time social life will follow on from work - many research groups will head out for karaoke together, and it's rare that you'll attend a workshop that doesn't move onto an izakaya afterwards. There may also be opportunities to make friends in dormitories or societies outside the university, but obviously this may depend both on your Japanese abilities and how long you're required to be in the lab for.
What are your future prospects?
After finishing up my doctorate I'm looking to go into teaching and research, either here in Japan or abroad. Most entry-level lecturer posts in Japan require some sort of teaching experience, preferably at university level, so it's worth keeping an eye out for any part-time teaching assistant work that comes your way. A lot of these posts will be filled via introductions and word of mouth, so it is important to let people know that you exist and that you're available. Another possible move is into translation or proofreading – as a native English speaker with expertise in a particular subject area, you'll be given plenty of opportunities to gain experience there, as well as it being a useful source of income during your studies.
Is there anything people should be aware of if they want to continue their study after the initial MEXT term?
Again, this is something that will depend on your university and department, but I think the best advice is to discuss your plans as early as you can, both with your supervisor and with the relevant department office, each of which will not necessarily be aware of what the other requires of you. Additionally, try and get all the information that you can confirmed in writing, including if and when you're taking an entrance exam, and what language you'll be taking it in. While the MEXT programme itself has no specific Japanese language requirements, and research students can be accepted at your supervisor's discretion, the department may stipulate a certain level of language ability for entry onto the master's and doctoral courses. Some universities and departments, particularly in the sciences, will allow you to take the exam in English, but this wasn't the case for me, so it's well worth checking in advance.
It's also important to have good idea of what you want to achieve by continuing your research. Although this sounds obvious, and you'll have submitted a research outline as part of the MEXT application, your plans may not survive contact with your supervisor, or you may decide to change your approach after taking some relevant classes.
Would you recommend The MEXT Scholardhip? If so, in what aspect it is good?
Doing my postgraduate studies at Hokudai has been an incredible experience, and one that would only have been possible through the MEXT scholarship. Negotiating your own entry into a Japanese university can be extremely difficult, to say nothing of supporting yourself financially through a graduate programme. However, the MEXT programme provides an excellent way to do both of these. Moreover, if your field is related directly to Japan or Japanese culture, then conducting your research within Japan itself allows access to a huge wealth of written materials, native informants and local expertise that would be almost impossible to obtain from outside the country.
