Oxford 2012

Doing research can be exhausting and frustrating (!) at times.


Last year was a crazy year, with never ending experiments and no clear results. Halfway I felt like I lost my motivation, and just kind of did everything because it was already running on autopilot mode. 


Then I thought perhaps I need to set some immediate goals, to make the routine more meaningful. So that when I woke up in the morning, I would feel the spark again having the feeling that I worked towards something. 


As the goal to actually do something to contribute to mankind sounds very idealistic and abstract, at that time, the goal was to submit an abstract for a conference. The conference was in Oxford held last June. I went to the same conference in 2009 in Italy at the start of my PhD, but barely understood everything presented. I even said to myself back then, I probably wouldn't made it back to the same conference. Probably I'd better off to some other conferences. But having worked on the field for 3 years, the program actually looked very appealing and relevant! Especially now that it was held in Oxford, whose local organizer was a group working using similar techniques as what we do in our lab here. 


Really exciting, I thought. And it is Oxford!
With venue like in the Harry Potter, etc, etc! ;-) 


I didn't dare to say anything to my supervisor yet, because I couldn't afford having her turn it down. I was on my final two weeks of the experiments. I have worked so much and felt so tired from having unexpected results. I needed this to keep me going. 


So two weeks passed. Some data were obtained.
I asked my supervisor and she agreed on my request to submit an abstract (or actually she suggested I could submit two, but we only submitted one in the end). Yeay!


I'm still stuck in the middle of my PhD, now, by the way. No light in the end of the tunnel yet (oh, well, maybe a little). But I made it to Oxford last June. Very grateful to have been able to go there, and more importantly, to have been able to follow the talks and the discussion (unlike 3 years ago!!). Had stimulating discussion with other PhD students and some professors about my work (it was impressive how many people stopped by my poster, actually, unlike my experience in another conference!). So in short, it was all worth it! 

The venue: Merton college

The quad where we stayed and went for the talks

The dining hall (am I right about the Harry Potter thing?) 

Blenheim Palace, an hour drive from Oxford -- the place for the gala dinner

Finally, the reason why I was there.. to do some science, of course!  :-) 

It still a looong way to go, but maybe it's time for me to set other "Oxford" for the time being... :-) 

Cultural sensitivity

Living in a place with cultures and customs different than yours definitely needs a certain degree of cultural sensitivity. This is necessary to understand why people do the way they do and behave the way they behave. Also, to understand where people are coming from.

As living in a place with different cultures and customs is probably difficult enough, even more so, living in a place with different cultures and customs, and on top of that with different languages. Languages, as the main tools of communication, can create some barriers in understanding the cultures.


Language could be the first barrier to make a contact? 

 I have a few experience living in a place where the local language is far different from the language I have ever heard, and not the common language I have learned at school. I first encountered this when coming to Japan during my high school years for a 3-month exchange. I only learned a little Japanese prior to my departure, and it all vanished by the time I arrived in the country. They spoke in a different way than what I have learned (which was very little). I lived in a family who was very kind, but spoke barely English. (OK, English is not my mother tongue either as you might have noticed, but I couldn't have expected them to speak Indonesian, my mother tongue, could I?). I went to a public school with everything conducted in Japanese, and my classmates spoke very little English.  I joined their lunch being lost in their joyful chatter about some boys next door, or some newly published comics, or whatever mattered to 17 years old girls.

The first two weeks was beyond exhausting. I couldn't communicate with dictionary all the time, could I? Even when they talked to me, I couldn't even grasp what they said, let alone looking the words up in the dictionary. My host mother and host sister were the ones with most patience; I owed them a lot that I survived till the end of the stay. Gradually, but I don't know how, things started to make sense. I started hearing the words, and funnily, as I have started getting the words, I could start saying something back. Of course, this was not straight forward.. a lot of learning was taken place. In short, at the end of the stay, I could understand much better. I could speak, even make an essay (with some help of course!), and make a speech to say good bye to the people at school.  

Being the only foreigner at school, I noticed that people were interested in me. At least, interested in knowing where I came from, etc. But, almost no one, except a few people from my lunch group dared to speak to me. Perhaps they were afraid that I wouldn't have understood them, because after my speech, everything changed. People greeted me in the hall way and started asking me questions. Too bad this all happened only at the end of my stay!

So, indeed, different language was seen as a barrier to even start making contact.


Something hidden behind the language?

I came back to Japan 4 years after that, with a better Japanese. I took some more lessons after my first experience and now a bit more prepared. The better fluency in the language indeed made my second stay (this time for a year) was more fruitful. Communication with people was much easier. However, as my understanding in the language is better, so is my understanding in the culture.

I started to see things which are hidden behind the language. I found another layer in the society which brought a lot of culture shock to me. I found some more other values which were implied from it. It gave me a lot of stress, by the way, which was relieved a bit after my visit back to my host family during my first visit and talked with them about it. The discussion with them made me see things differently, and made me start to understand and accept (!) why things were the way they were.

It was a long journey in understanding a different culture. I haven't really understood it, but if anything, it probably taught me some cultural sensitivity.


What about the awareness of the existence of other people? 

Yes, definitely. Cultural sensitivity brings an awareness of the existence of people coming from different backgrounds, which makes me more careful in making assumption.

And to make this post a bit more controversial: cultural sensitivity certainly brings an awareness of the existence of other people.

What do you think is better to raise awareness of the existence of others, other than having an experience of feeling non-existent? For example, being caught in a discussion where you don't understand what is being said? Being in a place where you are feeling ignored because people speak in words you cannot even catch? ;)

After the Japanese experience, as I came to the Netherlands --again a country whose language I have never encountered before--, similar cycle restarted again. Although now, it was a bit easier in term of communication as people generally spoke good English. However, people still speak in their own language, you know. It is just normal that people feel comfortable communicating in their own language. It is just natural that people speak to each other in their own language, especially when there is only one foreigner in the circle.

Rude, you must say, but it is just the way it is.

After some point, it did not bother me anymore --maybe not because that I got bit better in the language, but maybe more because of my ignorance. However, after some point, it makes me uncomfortable when seeing people feeling left out in the conversation because of this. I see this happens a lot of times when a new foreigner comes to a group of native people (of course you cannot expect them to speak in the language yet).

Once, I asked someone why they hadn't come to a party. He said to me that he knew he would be bored. He knew people would try to make a conversation with him in the beginning, then switched to their language, and then he had to interrupt to ask them to switch back, and then this would happen a few times until he didn't feel like asking all the time.

Anyway.. I can give you a lot of scenarios... (this is the main reason why I came up with this post at the first place, by the way), but I only want to say to you this: if you are currently experiencing this: hang in there, my friends!

You will be rich from the experience, and just remember that perhaps they do not have the cultural sensitivity because they have never been in the same place as you :-)