Graduate School on Nick Wang

Private: Tokyo U Studies is Fail, but Work in Tokyo is Go

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:36:34 +0000

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Denial Letter from Todai :(, originally uploaded by cloneofsnake.

This is the letter I got back from the University of Tokyo. Yes, after months of research and preparation and writing that long ass research proposal, this simple 2 liners is what I got. “Sorry, you didn’t pass.” As I’ve noted before, I found out that they had removed the English info page for the foreign research student program in December. That already gave me a signal that they really are not ready to accept anyone… except may be the Monbusho scholarship receivers. So, I’m not too surprised. That was back in end of December. After that, I moved on to plan B, moved to Hong Kong to work with a couple of my college schoolmates on a web business. Also trying my hands on the local HK job market, but HK is a strange place… it values nothing other than Finance. My choices here are either work at an investment bank’s IT department and make tons of money but be bored to death, or go on my own starting a business. There is very little to choose from in between, there isn’t any large Internet companies that value high level IT folks and willing to pay a fair amount for them. (I guess everyone can easily get cheaper IT people in China.)

However, the good news for me is, back in February, I was contacted by one of friends whom I had met in New York, and whom had helped me tremendously with my applications to Monbusho and Todai. It turns out, his company is preparing to expand to the US / English market and he’s in the process of recruiting experienced IT professionals like myself. This is why networking is so important folks! Throughout the years, I’ve enjoying knowing and working with a lot of talented people. I am always interested in knowing what they do, what are their personalities, what are they good at? Because I know, one day, I’ll need their help or I’ll know someone that’s looking for someone with some specific skills, and I can hook them up. This is professional networking. For example, in this instance, my friend here found me, and I’m already looking at my list of professional friends… whose skills will I need? There’s an Associate Manager of Strategic Partner Development at Google, who used to be a Business Operations Analyst at Yahoo. She was extremely good at explaining to our customers how our business was helping them. (using data that I provided her.) She can really help out on communications. There’s an experienced Marketing Director who used to work for Microsoft and has since moved on to greener pastures. She can surely give us good advices in marketing. There’s an advertisement editor at Google/Youtube who could help on the ins and outs of advertising. A long time friend of mine who went to Cal Tech, and is now a Senior Mechanical/Manufacturing Engineer at General Motors. A manager of Corporate Social Responsibility at Burberry, who knows a lot of people and is definitely a good person to have in the current “environmentally conscious” corporate world. A multi talented designer from France. An I.T. security expert. Numerous talented developers and engineers…. etc. All of these people play a part in my plan for the future of the US expansion of this Japanese company! Really looking forward to this challenge! Next time, will update this blog on my recent studies on Drupal and web development.

Comments

admin — 2008-04-10 09:53:21

Azad!!! Whassup bro?!!! Congrats on the planned marriage! LOL… (wonder how lil’ bro is doing w/ his kid…) Man! Your biz is doing good enough for u to move to Hawaii huh?! That’s awesome! Dude, I have so much to talk to u about! I’ve lined up this opportunity in Tokyo, I’ll manage their expansion into the US market! May reach out to you if the owner is interested in the Latin America market. I’m really excited about this opportunity! His business is revolutionary! And my goal is to help it become a household name!!! Also been working with new web marketing firms in HK and Japan, I’ve been thinking how I can connect you to them… Let’s talk about the details over the phone! Jose IM’ed me last month, not sure how he’s doing though. Dude, how much tax u have to pay for last year? I paid that shit load for my Yahoo stock options, but could only get $7000 back from uncle Sam… Shit! LOL

AZ from Yahoo!NY — 2008-04-10 00:59:58

Hey there Nicky-James, wow, so this is what you have been up too, hiding in HK huh! Man, I miss you bro and all your old nintendo games. How’s life in HK? I still live in NY and business is doing great. Never went back to 9-5. Actually, my gf and I are looking into getting married and may be moving to Hawaii. I’m just waiting to settle a few biz stuff. Heard from Jose? How are your wife n family doing? Email me. Peace and Prosperity

Still waiting for the University of Tokyo

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:47:28 +0000

I’ve written about applying to the University of Tokyo in a previous post. The submission period for that “Foreign Research Student” program at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies was back in October, and I had my application FedEx’ed over in mid-October. The University of Tokyo didn’t send me any acknowledgment notice of having received my application, all I know is from my FedEx tracking number, someone had signed for my package. I knew that they would release the results in December, but it’s now December 29th and I still haven’t received any news yet. :( A couple of weeks back, I went back to look at the info page for the “Foreign Research Student” program, to my horror, the English page has been taken off their website!! The Japanese version is still there, and from it I verified that the results will be sent out in late December. I know the English version was a little out of date, but why had they taken it offline completely rather than updating it? Are they not welcoming “foreigners” in their “Foreign Research Students” program? (Why call it “Foreign Research Students” then??) This week though, I missed a delivery from the Post Office. They left me a slip in the mailbox, I’m not sure what it is but this may be a certified letter from the University of Tokyo… Oh God, I’m so nervous. I’ve done my best in gathering all the requirements and written a pretty damn good research proposal (as seen here in Japanese). I keep telling myself to prepare for the worst, but I know that if I get a rejection letter, I’m still going to be devastated! Meanwhile, it’s more waiting until I go to the Post Office to pick up the mysterious letter / parcel on Monday. If there is a God, I need your blessing now!

ニュースメディアに関するクラウドソーシング

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 11:30:16 +0000

Here’s my research proposal for the Graduate School Application for International Research Students at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies. It’s translated into Japanese by my friend Satoko. After spending more than 3 months writing and revising my proposal in English, I had to look for a translator to put it into Japanese. Since I was in Hong Kong at the time, I thought I’d find a local translator to help me. Unfortunately, the only thing I could find was a company that doesn’t have anyone who has a good command of English. I spent HKD $1300 but after receiving the end product, I had to schedule a meeting with the owner of the company and sat down with her for an entire afternoon to redo the whole thing. Still, that wasn’t good enough and my friend Satoko took time out of her busy school schedule to help me polish the paper to this final version. So, here it is!

研究計画書（表紙）研究テーマについて、過去の研究業績の詳しい説明、問題意識、今後の研究の具体的計画などを論文形式にまとめること。本紙を表紙として、4000字程度（A4版任意用紙３枚程度）にまとめた研究計画書を添付して提出すること。研究テーマニュースメディアに関するクラウドソーシング研究要旨（日本語で200字程度）この研究の目的はクラウドソーシング及びインターネット上でユーザーが配信する情報の歴史を詳しく研究報告することです。ウィキペディアに代表されるクラウドソーシング・ウェブサイトが人気を獲得し、成功した要因を追求し、クラウドソーシングを活用したジャーナリズムニュースサイトのスピード性、精密性、正確性、ディテール性、信頼性、スコープ性を伝統的メディアニュースと比較検討します。また、将来のモバイルインターネット使用に伴いクラウドソーシングによるニュースメディアがどのように成長するかを予測します。

– アメリカでは、大企業による消費者に対する理不尽な対応が相次ぐ中、消費者がconsumerist.com やyoutube.comなどのウェブサイトで意見交換を行い団結し、企業に対して訴訟を起こし、勝訴する事態が起きています。 2005年７月の、テロリストによって地下鉄とバスが爆破されたロンドンテロ事件では、出勤途中のバスの乗客が撮った事件現場の写真がフリッカー（flickr）にアップロードされ、それに対してのコメントが多数寄せられました。また、2001年には、ウィキペディア"フリー百科事典"が登場し、現在200万件にのぼる記事がユーザーによって作成、編集されています。一般の人々が専門家に代わり、他の消費者の為にコンテンツ作成を行うこの大衆の貢献（crowd contribution) は、クラウドソーシングと呼ばれています。私の研究はどのようにしてクラウドソーシングがニュースメディアに適用されるのかという点に焦点を置いています。過去の研究業績 1994年ワシントン大学に入学し、初めてインターネットを使用しました。それをきっかけにインターネットに興味を持ち、それからの4年間、私はＣ、ＶＢ、Javaなどのプログラム、及びデータベース製作やネットワークの立ち上げを学びました。私の専攻は運営管理と情報システムでした。卒業課題の一つではアメリカの一般家庭でのブロードバンドによるインターネット接続の実現可能性を調査しました。具体的にはケーブルと電話会社の出版物から情報を収集し、雑誌やオンラインで出版されていた最新情報を調査、また電話会社の代表者と直接コンタクトをとり、サービスの値段や私の住む地域で入手可能なサービスについて聞き取り調査をしました。この調査の結果、電話回線交換所から家庭まで電話線を延長する作業が高コストになるという"ラストマイル"と呼ばれる問題点を報告しました。結論としてアメリカに普及している古い電話回線の構造が、電話会社が低コストの高速インターネット接続サービスを提供する妨げになっていることを指摘し、将来はケーブルテレビ・ネットワークが電話会社に代わって比較的高速なインターネット接続サービスを提供することで、この市場を獲得することを予測しました。マイクロソフト社での勤務時、新規に開設された運営部門で、MSN.comに関連する1500の企業レベルのサーバーのウェブファーム管理を行いました。数百人のエンジニアが共同で問題を探り、解決できる方法を研究しました。また、知識銀行（knowledge bank)に知識を集中させることができないかと考え、その解決策として、SQLサーバデーターベースを基礎にし、ASPを使用したウェブ・チケティング・システムを社内開発しました。次の勤務先であるYahooでは、別々に作成された二つのウェブと財務システムのデータを統合する問題を解決する為に採用されました。データ統合とデータ移行のプロジェクトを始動させ、それに関して複数の開発チームの運営管理を担当しました。私は大量データの保存と情報回収の方法を集中的に学び、PHPやMySQLを使用したトラッキング・システムの開発を助力しました。Yahooで勤務した５年間の間に、“Web 2.0"が展開し始めていました。その中で私が一番感銘を受けたのは、フリッカー(flickr)というウェブサイトで使用されていた、ユーザーが自分の写真を見つけられるよう、個々のユーザーに合わせた"タグ"を配信する精巧なタグシステムでした。このシステムは容易にデータを保存、検索、回収する方法に革命を起こしました。Flickrが後にYahooに買収された後、私はタグシステムを自分のプロジェクトに積極的に採用しました。問題意識私のこれまでの経験はデータベースを基礎とした問題と知識を集中させる方法に集中した、主に技術的なものでした。この経験は現行のクラウドソーシングウェブサイトと技術的に近似性があり、相違点としては、私の過去の業績は一般に公開されたシステムではなく、社内の従業員にのみ提供されていたという点です。この経験はウェブにおけるクラウドソーイングに関する見識を与えてくれました。大切な点は、技術はコンテンツの保存、探索を容易にする鍵にすぎないということです。これらの職務経験を通して、コンテンツの質やユーザーの参加度によって、使用されている技術が成功しているかどうかを測ることを学びました。私は技術的な面でクラウドソーシングに精通しているだけでなく、個人的にもクラウドソーシングを使用、参加しています。アメリカのテレビはテレビ局側が視聴者に見せたい番組しか作らず、視聴者にアナリストの意見を押し付ける傾向があるので、私はアメリカのテレビニュースは好きではありません。nowpublic.comやohmynews.co.jp（オーマイニュース）のようなクラウドソーシングニュースサイトで事実のみを得る方を好みます。今年 3月に私の祖父が癌と宣告されましたが、ウィキペディアやヤフーのヘルスグループで医者や患者らが医学書からの情報だけでなく、自身の治療状況や体験などを掲載しているのを参考にすることができました。このような一般大衆から発信されたニュースや情報は、着実と人気を得、将来的にはこれまでの専門的なソースに代わって、より信頼されるニュースソースとなり得ると予測しています。私はクラウドソーシングの権威であるWired magazineのジェフ・ハウや、実際にお会いしたことのあるハーバード･ビジネススクール教授のカーリム・ラカニ氏のブログを常にチェックし、クラウドソーシングに関する最新ニュースを常に追っています。今後の研究の具体的計画クラウドソーシングという用語は2006年に作り出されたばかりの造語ですが、この分野に関する技術革新は驚異的なスピードで進んでいます。近年、少なくとも２５チームものクラウドソーシングについての研究プロジェクトチームが世界中に存在しています。これらのプロジェクトチームは、the University of Vienna, Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm Sweden, Abo Akademi University of Finland, Harvard Business School, MIT, Stanford University, NYU, New York Law School, University of Utah, UT Austin, University of Haifa in Israel その他オランダ、カナダ、イギリス、ペルーの大学などの大学を含んでいます。私の研究の一環として、私の研究をクラウドソーシングし、世界中の研究者と分ち合うことを考えています。それにより、個々の研究課題を投稿し、意見交換や、相互評価を行うことができます。私の研究目標はまず、クラウドソーシングの歴史とユーザーによるウェブコンテンツ一般を調査報告することです。歴史的事実を確認した後、 wikipedia, ohmynews, nowpublic, flickrなどの最も普及しているクラウドソーシング・ウェブサイトの成功の要因を確定したいと思います。そして、クラウドソーシング・ジャーナリズムに焦点をあて、クラウドソーシング･ニュースサイトのスピード性、真実性、ディテール性、信頼性、範囲、重複、盗作などの見地から、従来のニュースメディアと比較検討していきます。上記の研究でプランクラウドソーシング・ウェブサイトの過去･現在に関する記録作業が完成します。その次のステップとしてはウェブサイトの将来的、連続的成功に関する問題を提起していきます。私の推測では、クラウドソーシング・ウェッブサイトはモバイル・インターネットの機能として普及していくと思われ、これは3.5G高速度モバイル・ネットワークとiPhoneのようのMID (Mobile Internet Device)の普及から見ても明らかです。現代産業のリーダーが将来に備えどのような研究開発を行っているかについて研究調査を行い、また、現在モバイル・ネットの日本での利用状況を考察します。私の研究目的はジャーナリズムに重点を置いたクラウドソーシングの使用について綿密な歴史的調査を行うことです。貴大学の学際情報学府の大学院生としてこの研究プロジェクトを続けられることを心から希望しています。また、この研究プロジェクトが林先生の講義で利用していただけるとすれば、学際情報学府の他の学生にもクラウドソーシングジャーナリズムに関して興味を持ってもらえるのではないかと思っています。個人的な視点では、人生のこの時点で何をすべきなのかを熟考しているところです。一般企業での職務で私の人生を終らせるべきではないと考えています。自分に出来る社会に貢献できる有意義な事は出来ないかと考えたところ、クラウドソーシングコミュニティーが私の最優先事項であることに気づきました。クラウドソーシング産業に従事する友人に助言を求めたところ、東京大学の卒業生であるcuusoo.comの西山浩平氏が東京大学で研究を続けるよう助言してくださいました。こうして東京大学大学院学際情報学府と出会う事ができました。私の経験と研究が貴大学に貢献でき、また貴大学で私の学問的、また専門的知識をさらに深めることが出来ればと願っています。

Comments

Still waiting for the University of Tokyo | My Journey to Japan — 2008-04-16 11:28:25

[…] « ニュースメディアに関するクラウドソーシング Yoyo Boy, I’d rather have you be your naughty self […]

Sold our house in Seattle, bought a new condo in New York

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 02:18:45 +0000

I’ve meant to come back and post about all the things that I’ve been doing, but I’m not too good with multi-tasking… Whenever I’m too concentrated on one thing, I don’t want to spread myself out to do other things. Anyway, after my last post and my last day at Yahoo!, I flew back to Seattle and stayed for a couple of months. Our family house was still there with no one living in it, so my mom and I went back to pack everything up and put it on the market. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to move from a home of more than 15 years, but I can tell you it’s no fun at all! How I wished DragonBall’s Capsule Corp. was real… LOL. While I was in Seattle, I continued to communicate with my friends at cuusoo.com and refine my research plan. (I’ll post it on here later.) I also emailed the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies at the University of Tokyo to clarify about the research plan and the “Supervising Faculty of Choice”. You have to fill out that field on your research plan, but it seems that you don’t have to contact the professor beforehand. I sent 3 emails to 3 different faculty members, only the 1st one returned my email, the rests simply ignored me. (I sent the email in Japanese too! I’ll also post that here later.) Another requirement was the “Japanese Language Proficiency Level” form, which I needed to find a teacher to administer some sort of test to me. This turned out to be a lot harder than I originally thought! No one at the University of Washington’s Japanese department could do that for me. In the end, I went back and contacted Yamada Keiko in New York, whom I had gotten a last minute crash course from back then for the interview of the position at Yahoo Japan. She gave me the sample JLPT Level 2 test, which was pretty tough!

There are 4 levels, with level 1 being the toughest. I haven’t been doing any studying at all for the past 2 months in Seattle, so I was really surprised that I still almost passed the test! Back in New York, my mom came and stayed at my sister’s place for about a month… during that time, she looked at a few condo’s with my sister. Admittedly, the housing market is on shaky grounds in the US right now… but it seems like it’s not affecting New York City at all! In the end, I showed my mom the condo that Queenie and I were going to buy… it’s a brand new 600 sq. ft. 1 bed 1 bath with a fairly large private basement storage with washer and dryer, conveniently located on 32nd Street near 30th Ave in Astoria. There are only 8 units in the 4 stories building, and we already put a deposit on the unit on the 3rd floor facing the back. My mom ended up paying the same price as us and got the unit facing the front, so together we now own the entire 3rd floor. Buying real estates in NYC have so many hidden costs! May be I should write about that too another time. Then, in less than a month’s time, we had to pack up and move everything in our apartment into storage, coz we had to fly to Hong Kong to prepare for our wedding. I’m in Hong Kong now, just finished my final research plan and had my sister send the package for me to Tokyo U. I won’t know the results until December. In the meantime, I’ll start my next project while I’m in Hong Kong.

The Best way to get into University of Tokyo as a foreign student

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 02:51:48 +0000

If you’ve read my previous post, you know I said it’s best to first apply as a “foreign trainee / research student” (外国人研究生) to the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies at the University of Tokyo (東京大学大学院情報学環・学際情報学府). The truth is, unless you got the monbukagakusho scholarship, or you’re willing to fly to Japan in July and August for the entrance exam and interviews, it’s almost impossible for a foreigner to be admitted into Todai (東大 - short for Tokyo Daigaku 東京大学). Once I knew I didn’t get the Monbusho, I started looking into how to go study in Japan as a privately financed student. Apparently, there is a standardized test that you can take to gain admission as an undergraduate. It’s called the Examination for Japanese University Admission for International Students (EJU), it is a test carried out by the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) since 2002. It serves to evaluate whether foreign students who wish to enroll at the undergraduate level at a Japanese university possess the necessary Japanese language skills and basic academic abilities to study at such institutions.

However, this test is only administered in Japan and in a few other Asian countries and in Russia. If you live anywhere else, you’re screwed. Also, there’s no such standardized test for graduate schools. So, that means I cannot be admitted into a Japanese grad school from overseas. After doing more research, I found out that the general case of studying in Japan begins with a student first enrolling in a Japanese-language institute. (Read this link!) You can either 1) sign up for special courses for foreign students held by private universities (valid pdf link), or 2) attend a Japanese-language institutes certified by the Association for the Promotion of Japanese Language Education. Now I don’t know about you, but it looks to me those Japanese-language institutes are not on the same level as a real university. I would definitely aim for 1 rather than 2. Check out the pdf link above for a list of universities offering Japanese Language programs for foreign students. Still, having to attend a Japanese Language course at another university means that I am still quite far away from my intended grad school in Todai. I decided to use this option as a backup, and I kept digging for info at the University of Tokyo for International Students website. I looked up admission information for international students (pdf), their International Center and Japanese Language Education, after a few emails to clarify how things work, I believe I’ve found the perfect way for me to get into Todai right away - the “foreign trainee / research student” at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies. Being a research student at Todai grants you the rights to study at their International Center’s Japanese Language school. Aside from the fact that I will be getting access to at least one faculty member at the grad school, which hopefully will translate to an advantage when I apply for a graudate student, I also find that the tuition fee is considerably lower than attending other Japanese Language schools! In the next few posts, I’ll write about what kind of research project I’ll propose. I’ll also look deeper into my backup - the Japanese courses held by private universities and report my findings here.

Comments

Wakarimasen — 2007-07-26 14:47:30

I am in a similar situation as you. I just found out that my girlfriend (a Japanese citizen studying in the U.S.) will have to return to Japan next year after we graduate in May. She already has a job lined up in Japan and now I’m struggling to find a way for us to stay together. The biggest problem is that I can’t speak japanese. I have been studying it on my own since last summer, but without any real urgency. Suddenly the realization hit me that I only have one more year to take the necessary steps for the next major stage in my life. At first I thought the only question was ‘should I go to grad school or find a job?’ But now it’s become ‘do I want to live in the U.S. or Japan?’ And if the answer is Japan, how can I realistically make that happen? I have been looking into graduate schools in Japan and found several with international programs taught in English that relate to my field (University of Tokyo, Hokkaido University, Keio University, Toyohashi University of Technology, and Tokyo Institute of Technology). However, I question whether or not I should realistically expect to get accepted into any one of these. It seems like, in general, these English language programs are actually intended for international students from developing countries in Asia. And looking at the bigger picture, I wonder if an English language masters program would even be a good idea in the long run if my intention is to live in Japan. It would give me two more years to study Japanese, but I would be constantly working in English without much free time. To hold an engineering job in Japan I would need not only conversational fluency in Japanese, but I would need to be able to read and write technical papers in Japanese. With that in mind, I would probably be better served by a Japanese language masters program, but then I am faced with the same problem of having to learn Japanese first. In this entry you mention starting by enrolling in a Japanese Language Institute. That sounds like a good way to learn Japanese faster, but these seem to be short programs, some only a few weeks or months, the longest are one year. That just doesn’t seem like enough time to become fluent and jump right into a masters program. Is it really that effective? Or are these intended for people who already have a decent grasp of Japanese language? If none of the above options are possible, I am left with less appealing choices. I can stay in the U.S., try to maintain a long distance relationship with my girlfriend, study Japanese on my own until fluent, and hopefully “someday” move to Japan and get a job there. Sounds pretty unlikely to me. If I did this it would probably mean the eventual end of my relationship, and I would likely end up in the U.S. for the rest of my life. That’s the “safe” option where I follow the beaten path. The risky option would be to put grad school and an engineering job on hold and try to get into Japan as an English teacher. I haven’t really looked into this yet, but I have heard that there is some demand for this and that there is no formal teaching degree needed. I can’t imagine that the pay would be great, but it might be a way for me to get my foot in the door. Good luck with your own efforts and if you have advice for my situation, I would love to hear it. By the way, my interest in Japan is not just due to my girlfriend; I have had the desire to live there someday since before I met her. It has just become more urgent now that our relationship is a factor.

Still waiting for the University of Tokyo | My Journey to Japan — 2007-12-30 02:56:34

[…] written about applying to the University of Tokyo in a previous post. The submission period for that “Foreign Research Student” program at the Graduate […]

Todai — 2007-12-25 07:42:57

Good for you! I have been looking up about how to get into universities in Japan as well, without much success. It seems that there are a few facilities, but they are often awkwardly unaccessible for Americans and especially Europeans. I think that teaching English would be the back up option, as it is going straight into a job without needing any kind of major qualifications. I was considering perhaps flying over there and going to prep school (which I assume costs a lot of money) for a year or so and then taking the university tests. If I fail them, there is always a chance to take it again the next year. The teaching of English at a local school can hopefully provide enough for me to live there that long, if not, there must be some place somewhere that requires a fluent English speaker (but you would probably need to be fluent in Japanese too). So, overall, I will do some more research but it seems that universities have enough applicants that can already speak Japanese and therefore are in little need for foreign students, no matter their fluency in English (and Japanese). However, there is hope, and I will be taking my JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) next December, and that might help things a little. Well, anyways, I’ll try to let you guys know, and I’ll keep looking! Gambatte kudasai!

Inquiries about Admission at University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 17:34:22 +0000

Besides writing about my failures and personal experiences, I will also document the process of admission here. The first step is to gather information and to inquire about department specific admission procedures. Here, I’m writing to University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies. I will post more information about this graduate school in a later post. When I receive more info from the staff over there, I’ll also post them here, so look forward to it. Academic Affairs Division (学務係 Gakumu Kakari) gakumu@iii.u-tokyo.ac.jp Tel: 03-5841-8769 Fax: 03-3811-5970 —– Forwarded Message —- From: Nicholas Wang To: gakumu@iii.u-tokyo.ac.jp Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 7:08:51 AM Subject: 外国人研究生 Foreign Trainee To the Academic Affairs Division, 初めまして、ニコラス　ウォンと申します。　ワシントン大学の卒業生で、Microsoft MSN.comとYahoo.comなどのネット会社で八年間働く経験をもっています。今は修士課程を探しています、来年の四月入学希望です。

I am very interested in pursuing a master’s degree in the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies / Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies at University of Tokyo. Through your website, I have gathered the admission requirements. I believe it is in my best interest to first apply as a foreign trainee between Oct. 1st and Oct. 31st of 2007. My plan is to become a foreign trainee and come to the University of Tokyo by April of 2008. While I serve as a trainee at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, I should be able to attend Japanese Language courses at the University of Tokyo International Center. I will then be able to take the entrance exams for the master course in July of 2008. Can you please provide me with any additional information in order to successfully complete all the application requirements? One specific question I have is regarding the 日本語能力証明書. Where can I be tested for Japanese language proficiency in New York? Thank you very much for your help. Sincerely, Nicholas Wang Yahoo Inc. 45 W 18th St., 6th fl., New York, NY 10011

Monbukagakusho - the reason why I decided to go to Grad school in Japan

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:57:22 +0000

I’ve only just learned of this awesome Japanese government scholarship from my sister recently, after I told her that I’m being laid off. My sister was lucky enough to have done 2 exchange programs to Japan, once when she was in high school, she spent a summer in Kagoshima, Kyuushu. The second was in her last year in college, she went for a whole year at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. It was at Aoyama where she met people who was on the Monbukagakusho (Monbusho for short) scholarship. I’m a typical elder child in the house. I studied boring subjects in college, got myself stable jobs at Microsoft and Yahoo! Never strayed far from the planned path. When my sister got to do the summer home stay in Kagoshima, I was quite jealous of her. I never chose to have any fun in school, all I thought about was picking the “right” courses to prepare myself for a career in the computer industry. I really wished I had taken chances to relax and do something crazy. Now, I’ve just passed the big 30 mark. (and by just, I mean more than a year ago :P) I finally have enough skills and experience under my belt to make me feel safe. I begin to think about stepping out of the “stable zone”… doing the “crazy” stuff. I’ve had some crazy ideas, one was to make films about sharks. I love sharks! And I fucking hate Chinese people for eating shark fins! I wanted to put some bogus research on film saying that shark fins are cancerous! So they would stop eating shark fins! Yes, the idea is bat shit crazy!:D

Some more realistic ones include a few web based businesses that I’m trying to put into motion now, and finally, going to Japan… I hadn’t really thought about this one, but once my sister told me about the scholarship, I did some research… and now I’m not quiting until I am there! Monbukagakusho (文部科学省) literally stands for “Literature, Science, Ministry”. Their English name is Ministry of Education,culture,sports,science and technology (MEXT). They have been inviting international students to study in Japan at state expense since 1954. I got most of the information from this website, there are seven types of Japanese government-sponsored scholarships available - research students, teacher training students, undergraduate university students, Japanese studies students, college of technology students, special training students and YLP students. The only one that I can apply for is the “Research Students” one. When I read the qualifications, it really hit me hard!

You must be under 35 years of age and a college graduate (includes prospective graduates). Or you must have completed 16 years of schooling.

Must be under 35 years old… that’s like saying to me, “you’re almost too old to make a change in life!” It really got me thinking! Where am I in life? Like I said before, if I have child support and a mortgage to pay, I probably would’ve looked for a new job already. Even if I spend a little time opening my own web business, I can imagine I’ll be back in corporate America’s death grip within 1 ~ 2 years. So do I want that? My answer is no. I think I want to work for an American company, but I don’t want to work in the US anymore. Getting this scholarship and going to grad school in Japan will allow me to achieve that goal. So, I applied. The results? That’s for a later post. (Hint: FAILURE!!)

Comments

David — 2007-06-30 01:13:02

Hey Nicholas, I have the same dream you’re pursuing at the moment. I’m still wondering why? though… Let me tell my story, perhaps we’ll meet up later in tokyo… my story is kinda weird, once I finished my bachelor I thought there was something missing in my life, I was kinda nerdy guy, pretty good at math I guess you can imagine how i look like… Anyhow, pretty much a tedious life I had, So I decided to live my country as soon as I got my diploma ( 我是哥倫比亞人 I guess having taiwanese family you got used to Chinese :p ) and I went to Montreal to improve my language skills, I spent a great time over there, every night was a blast, as i was in private language center as communication drills they had different events every night… well… time was gone I had again to move on… as I found an opportunity to go to Taiwan, I swear I didn’t think twice, just to get the experience, as I gotta admit I had good times over there, even though at the beginning it was hard time to me, I didn’t speak mandarin and my only weapon was my broken English… Once sucks of everything I enrolled me in a language center to learn the language… I had good times, but when I thought twice and reflecting about life I figured out there was still something else missing, perhaps I understood in taiwan that, no matter how good you speak the language or you know the customs always you will be a 外國人, anyhow I was having a good time, so I thought for a long while better, that I needed to keep growing in the professional field ( By the way I admire you, having worked in such a famous company, as you can see I’m 24 year old, and still my work experiences are 0.0, I mean real ones… ) back to the track I thought to stay in an asian country for many reason I won’t explain ( I know it sounds funny, but I applied a MICMAC algorithm to take the rightest choice ) well… one back to my country I started to prepare my papers, and it took me 4 weeks to get the papers, recommendation and so on… well, the fact is to my country colombia, there are just 6 scholarships and as far as I know the day i sent the papers ( lacking almost one month more there were applying over 700 hundred people ), Today they are discussing which ones are the fortunates be in the pre selected pool of 50…. if i get any news, I’ll let you know :p wish me lucky, who knows, I don’t wanna tell you bye, But see you there buddy :p

cloneofsnake — 2007-07-09 13:41:36

Did the Japanese Consulate in Columbia told you that there was only 6 scholarships & there were >700 applicants?! Damn!! It looks like you’re really gonna need some luck here! What’s your Japanese language level? It looks like you have a pretty good command of English, and your mother tongue is Spanish, right? I would think that you already have an advantage there, knowing more languages than most in the USA. Let me know how it goes, I hope the info I put up here will help you too.