How time flies. This year marks the 10th anniversary of my arrival in Sendai. I was 35 when I moved here from Beijing to study at Tohoku University in the fall of 1992.
I was taken to a laboratory of the Institute for Advanced Materials Processing (now Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials) at the university's Katahira campus where I found a statue of the Chinese writer Lu Xun, who was also a student there. I was surprised because it was very different from what I expected-a run-down building equipped with old-fashioned black telephones that are rarely seen these days.
But the high level of advanced research conducted in the lab was something to be proud of. The large number of foreign students from various countries made it a virtual ``mini-international society'' where I did not feel out of place. At the lab, I learned new knowledge and technologies on environmental conservation of steel manufacturing and acquired a doctor's degree in engineering in March 1997. The years I spent there were very fruitful and substantial.
As soon as I entered Northeastern University of Technology (now Northeastern University) in Shenyang, China, in February 1978, I started studying Japanese as a first foreign language. The Cultural Revolution had just ended and the environment was far from a good one for Japanese-language studies. Apart from whether they were good or not, we did have Japanese-language textbooks. But that was all. We had no audiotapes or reference books to help us learn the language.
Our Japanese-language instructor used to teach Russian and switched to teaching Japanese because the school canceled Russian classes, I was told. The classes were not geared to speaking and hearing but more to reading and understanding written material. Fortunately, before going to Japan, I was able to enroll in a yearlong Japanese-language course taught by a Japanese teacher dispatched from the Ministry of Education at a preparatory school in Changchun for Chinese students going to Japan.
Although I studied Japanese, at first, I was not sure whether I could make myself understood to Japanese people other than Japanese-language teachers. When I went to a store and asked for kaimen with confidence because I knew it was the Japanese word for sponge, the sales clerk did not understand and instead told me that what I was looking for was called suponji.
The more I study Japanese, the harder it gets. Even now, I find it difficult to come up with expressions to convey subtle nuances. For example, when I have a pain and have to describe it to a doctor, I am at a loss.
But more than daily conversation, it was difficult to make academic conversations and write papers because they require accurate understanding and expressions. The lab holds a study meeting about once a month but at the first meeting, I could not express myself accurately not only because my ideas were immature but also because of my poor Japanese. However, professor Junichiro Yagi and others patiently taught me technical terms and how to accurately use them one by one.
Professor Yagi loaned me a number of textbooks, saying, ``In order to understand the contents of a thesis written in a foreign language, you need to master technical terms starting with the ones you understand well.''
I also bought a 6,000-yen book on the manufacturing method of steel for 2,500 yen at a secondhand bookstore. I read these books late into the night day after day, including most Sundays. As a result, I felt that I could read theses faster and acquired a larger vocabulary required for academic writing.
Foreign students who come to Japan not only devote themselves to advanced studies, they also come in contact with teachers, fellow students and citizens and learn the enthusiasm, diligence and group orientation of the Japanese people and come to trust each other. I believe the experience can help them promote international exchange during their stay in Japan as well as after they go back to their own countries.
Several Chinese students who studied at Tohoku University are now actively serving as a bridge of a Japan-China joint research project that started in 1997 and are expected to play a major role in advancing Japan-China friendship in the future.
Studying abroad costs money. Fortunately, I could visit Japan as an exchange student and devote myself to study and research without worrying too much about living and school expenses. My scholarship was 180,000 yen a month. However, the term of payment expired after three and a half years. Since I came to Japan to earn a degree, I could not quit halfway.
To write a dissertation, I had to study intensively during the last year of the doctoral program so I had no time for a part-time job. Since I had a family to support, I couldn't ask my family to support me. That is why I had to live and support my family with what little money I had saved.
I moved to an apartment that rented for 20,000 yen a month and cut down on living expenses. It was said to be the cheapest in Sendai. Although my wife was pregnant, she cut her regular checkups to half to save money. During that year, we had our second child. It wasn't easy making ends meet, but I came to understand how living here was difficult for foreign students paying their own expenses. Such students make up more than 80 percent of all foreign students in Japan.
When people think about foreign students, they tend to think of only the students themselves. But many, like myself, are accompanied by their families. Living in a foreign country also seriously affects the families. For example, I could rent an apartment for a month in Beijing for the price of a bottle of juice in Sendai.
Various scholarships are available to foreign students in Japan. A Japanese government scholarship offered to graduate students is slightly less than 200,000 yen a month. Speaking from personal experience, I think it would be better to cut the amount to 70,000 yen to 100,000 yen a student so that more students can receive scholarship benefits.
In rural areas, where the cost of living is relatively low, students can somehow make ends meet and hold a part-time job to make up for the shortage.
Since I spent practically every day, including weekends, sitting at my desk studying, my eyesight rapidly declined and my legs got weaker. The doctor told me that sitting all day long is tiring on the legs. Working part-time in moderation offers a little diversion and is a good opportunity to make friends and get to know Japanese society.
Getting settled down in Japan is costly for foreign students because they need the money to make a deposit and pay key money to rent an apartment in addition to tuition and other school expenses. Although one-time loans are available to foreign students, they are not nearly enough.
Japan proposed plans to receive 100,000 foreign students but currently the number remains at slightly less than 80,000. Foreign students account for only 2 percent of all students enrolled in institutions of higher education.
There are about 30,000 foreign students who want to go to Japanese universities after they finish Japanese-language schools but few scholarships are available to them. I urge the government to take steps to drastically increase scholarships and other means of financial aid to foreign students. I believe studying abroad contributes to the promotion of international exchange and mutual understanding and leads to true peace.
My daughter came to Sendai when she was 5. At first, she couldn't speak any Japanese and I was worried whether she could get along. However, only six months after she entered a day-care center, she was speaking the language fluently. I was really impressed at how fast children learn a foreign language. At the same time, however, before I knew, she had forgotten how to speak Chinese.
My wife, who worked as a dentist in Beijing, also learned to speak Japanese. Recently, at the request of the Sendai Board of Education, she started teaching Japanese to Chinese elementary school students who came to Japan with their parents, many of whom are students or war-displaced Japanese in China who came back to their native country.
Dentistry is a profession that requires both experience and physical strength. Had she stayed in China, she could have advanced her career as a dentist. I feel indebted to her because she gave it up to accompany me to Japan to be a homemaker, which is not what she really wants.
This is the 10th New Year since I came to Japan to study. Like Chinese students before me who studied in Japan, I wish to make good use of what I learned here and serve as a bridge of Japan-China joint research.
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Japan should give foreign students a break