U.S.-Japan Innovators Project Symposium

Last night, my sister got us free tickets to Japan Society’s “U.S.-Japan Innovators Project Symposium: Improvisation, Creativity, Collaboration: Fueling Innovation in the 21st Century“. The first speaker, Daniel Pink, is actually on a fellowship from Japan Society, and he talked to us via high-speed video link from Keio University in Tokyo. I was really impressed with the quality of both the video and audio quality. (And the quality of the actual speech itself too.) The video was projected onto a huge screen and the resolution is very high, there was no lag in neither the video nor audio feed. Anyway, his speech was about his new book – A Whole New Mind. Basically, it’s about how our left brain, which does logical things, is becoming less important than our creative right brain. I couldn’t agree with him more… especially on the issue of current education systems and standardized testing. Those stuff absolutely kills the children’s creativities.

Then, we get to hear jazz musicain Marty Ashby play. Good stuff. One thing he mentioned was that children are born innovative and we adults keep taking it away.

Finally, Hiroshi Tasaka, Professor at Tama University, talked about … Adult Joy… LOL! Sounds dirty. But actually, it was pretty meaningful. The things that I took away from his speech was 1) it’s hardship that makes a person grow. 2) Life is happening while you make your plans. 3) once again, it’s hardship that shapes your path in life. 4) The person who gives you a lot of pain and sadness is your Buddha. 5) The Japanese verb “to work” 働く can be interpreted as はた + らく ~ neighbour + happy. So, to work is to make your neighbours happy.(?) 6) and finally, never put your speech notes onto powerpoint and show them your audience while reading off of them.

Seriously though, I enjoyed it very much, especially given my current state of “hardship”. LOL… So, my bitch-ass boss is actually my Buddha and she’s shaping my path. LOL. Enlightening!

monbukagakusho

# On the sheet titled “Field of Study and Study Program,” first write a brief, bulleted outline of your proposed field of study in Japan, and then write a detailed program of what you intend to study.
# There is the possibility of extending your scholarship to pursue a master’s degree or Ph.D as a regular student at your university if your grades are high and you pass the entrance exam given by the university, but scholarship extensions are by no means automatic. You should go to Japan with the understanding that you are a research student only.

The general timetable for the scholarship application process is as follows:

* May 25, 2007: Applications due at the Consulate General of Japan in Atlanta.
* Mid-June 2007: Interviews and exams at the Consulate General of Japan in Atlanta.
* End of June: Preliminary acceptances announced by Consulate. Successful applicants are instructed to contact universities for letter of acceptance.
* August 20, 2007: Letter of acceptance submission deadline.
* Mid- December: Tentative acceptances announced by Tokyo.
* Mid- February 2008: Final response and university assignment (April departures)
* April 1-7, 2008: April departures leave for Japan
* July 2008: Final response and university assignment (October departures)
* October 1-7, 2008: October departures leave for Japan

/***** Field of Study *****/
****** 専攻分野
****** Proposed study program in Japan – State the outline of your major field of study on this side and the details of your study program on the back. 日本での研究計画　－　この研究計画は、選考及び大学配置の重要な参考となるので，表面に専攻分野の概要を，裏面に研究計画の詳細を具体に記入すること。
****** 相当の日本語能力を有する者は，日本語により記入すること｡

My proposed field of study is “Information Science” – 情報科学. Through these studies, I hope to attain a high level of Japanese language skills related to technical communications, which will in turn allow me to continue on my career path to become a senior technology analyst. I intend to convert to become a regular graduate student and pursue a master’s degree after the first year.

The reason for choosing “Information Science” came from my work experience at Yahoo!, which I will explain in the detailed section. The following are subjects in my intended studies:

• Japanese Language
• Language and Information Science
• Visual Cognition
• Media and Culture
• Media and Semiotics
• Socio-psychology Communication Studies
• Search and data storage in Japanese

***** Study program in Japan in detail and concreteness（研究計画：詳細かつ具体に記入すること｡）

First, upon arrival in Japan, I plan to participate in the six-month Japanese language training. I have intermediate Japanese language skills but in order to become a regular graduate student in Japan, I’ll need close to fluent level. In case I cannot reach fluent level even after my first six months in Japan, I have chosen “Information Science” as my field of studies with this in consideration. The courses in the “Information Science” major allow the students to acquire basic interdisciplinary knowledge in the various fields concerned with social and cultural phenomena related to media, communication and information. These subjects will allow me to continue to learn Japanese, while being highly relevant to my career at the same time.

As I’ve said in the outline section, the reason why I chose “Information Science” is partly due to my work experience at Yahoo!. After spending more than 6 years at internet companies like Microsoft MSN.com and Yahoo! Inc., I have become an expert in database analysis. My career goal is to become a Database Architect in the Business Intelligence field. (Business Intelligence is a specialized database strategy that gathers and extracts information from historical data.)

In November of 2006, a “Business Intelligence Analyst” position opened up at Yahoo! Japan. The position requires Japanese Language skills, and the qualified candidate will work closely with both Japan and the US. He/she will be responsible for bringing the US’s “Business Intelligence” technologies to Japan. This job is extremely challenging and I felt that it was the ideal position for me. I possess the technical skills and I have always wanted to work in Japan. I applied and passed the technical exams. However, on my 3rd interview with a Japanese developer, I had a difficult time with his technical questions in Japanese and so, I failed to qualify for the position. As this field is highly specialized, they have yet to find a suitable person to fill the position as of May 16th, 2007. This tells me that there’s a lack of talent in this field.

After my attempt at that position, I have come to realize that, a job that works to bridge technologies between Japan and the US, is the only job that I want! In order to qualify for such a position, I will need to improve my Japanese. I started looking into graduate programs in Japan, and that was how I discovered the Monbukagakusho Scholarship.

As I researched into suitable graduate courses, I kept my career goal in mind. I need a program that will allow me to be in touch with the Japanese language. It will also be beneficial if I can learn about Japanese in the current age media such as the internet and mobile phones. These are the type of data that are used in an internet company’s Business Intelligence department. After researching into some of the top universities’ graduate programs, I found “Information Science” to be an ideal match for me.

Two of the universities that offer the “Information Science” graduate program are the University of Tokyo and Tohoku University.

At the University of Tokyo, I found the “Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies / Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies” department. The graduate school is comprised of three courses: Cultural and Human Information Studies, Socio-information and Communication Studies and Interdisciplinary Information Sciences.

The Cultural and Human Information Studies course is concerned directly with the task of constructing a new interdisciplinary field of information studies fusing aspects of the humanities and social sciences with elements of the natural sciences. Faculty members associated with this course are engaged in research on diverse topics, including information theory, evolution, ecological psychology, perception, semiotics, visual images, cultural studies, historical informatics, archiving, media literacy, media expression, education systems and design of the learning environment. The four main areas of study in this course are: (1) Life, body and environment, (2) Culture, representation and image, (3) Media expression, learning and literacy, (4) Archiving and historical informatics. Number 3 and 4 are of special interest to me as they are directly related to my career.

In the Socio-information and Communication Studies Course, students acquire basic interdisciplinary knowledge in the various fields concerned with social and cultural phenomena related to media, communication and information, and carry out research and other practical applications based on this knowledge. There are six main areas of study in this course: (1) Media and journalism studies, (2) Socio-psychology and information behavior, (3) Law and policy, (4) Economics and industrial studies, (5) Sociology and history, (6) Asian regional studies. Specific examples of the kind of topics covered in lectures and seminars are electronic money, the freedom of information, and the social and behavioral effects of cellular phone usage. This course is most relevant for internet professionals like me.

The last course, Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, is less relevant to me as it deals principally with mathematical and natural-science approaches to information studies, hence I won’t be going into it in details.

At Tohoku University, I found the “Graduate School of Information Sciences”. It consists of four departments: Computer and Mathematical Sciences, System Information Sciences, Human-Social Information Sciences, and Applied Information Sciences.

The Department of Human-Social Information Sciences has the most relevant courses for me. The staff and students of this Department aim at solving important and urgent problems that confront present and future societies from the environment, cities, population, resources, and energy. The following research topics are particularly emphasized: concepts and theories of information and communication; individual, social, political and economic functions and impacts of information and communication.

The specific courses within the Department of Human-Social Information Sciences that I’ve listed in the outline includes “Language and Information Science”, which aims to elucidate the nature of the system of knowledge that enables us to use natural languages. “Visual Cognition”, which researches into areas of spatial attention, visual consciousness, human factors involved in accident proneness and cross-modal perception. These topics are highly relevant in web design in terms of placement of information. “Media and Culture”, which delves into present days’ communication medium like photographs, movies, television and the internet. This course aims to examine the media society and culture, and experimentally create a new “public sphere” communication system. Once again, highly relevant to the internet industry. “Media and Semiotics”, which aims to analyze and explain all kinds of media contents with various theories and semiotics. Various media are surveyed and researched as sign systems and cognitive schemata for social communication.

In order to demonstrate the thoughts I put into choosing my field of studies, I chose to take up a large portion of the detailed section to write about my work experiences. I understand that the instruction asked for my proposed study program in detail and concreteness, but since the graduate courses’ names are quite self-explanatory, I hope that by explaining why I chose these courses, you can have a better idea of my serious attitude toward this scholarship and graduate studies in Japan. I am eager to devote my time and energy into studying in beautiful Japan.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Nicholas Wang

Some emails between me and people who interviewed me

From: Nicholas Wang
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 8:33 PM
To: xxxxx xx xxxx
Subject: RE: RX1xxxx18910 – Business Intelligence Analyst

Dear Ms. xxxx,

As seen in my email to Mr. xxxx, I am writing to inquire about the bilingual BI Analyst position. From what I gathered in the job posting, the key point to this position is to be able to provide the right data to those customers, by truly understanding their key business drivers. Obviously, in order to do that, this person must first be able to understand the language that the data is in. Once we dove into the data and found the key metrics to measure those key business drivers, this person will create the tables in the data warehouse, set up ETL processes to fill the tables with meaningful conformed data, create reports… etc. Much of these already exists in our U.S. systems, this position is responsible for helping to migrate and implement our knowledge to Yahoo! Japan.

I hope I’ve demonstrated that I understand both the business and technology sides of Business Intelligence. Recently, Hotjobs has started creating our own data warehouse while we are migrating our old CRM and web systems into new platforms. I have been actively participating in this process. I am familiar with ETL processes, OLAP databases, and the Business Objects applications. In terms of comprehension of the Japanese language, I am actually the person my Japanese friends would ask to fix their computers. I use a Japanese PDA (which runs Linux) myself. I have always wondered why Yahoo! Japan is so separated from the rest of Yahoo! worldwide. I know they operate as a different company, but Yahoo! users shouldn’t be separated due to that. If this position can help bridge Japan to the rest of the world, then I will be honored to be part of the team that made it possible. Most importantly, I’m eager to work hard to earn my title as a Business Intelligence Engineer.

My managers and co-workers here can all be my reference, I would very much like to have the opportunity to conduct an initial phone interview with you if possible. I can be reached at my work phone – xxxxxxxxxx. Please feel free to contact me at any time.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Best regards,

Nicholas Wang

My Reply (Goodbye, my dream job, my chance to fly to Tokyo 4 times a year. (T_T)

From: Nicholas Wang
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 1:21 PM
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Saturn technical position: RX1xxxx18910 – Business Intelligence Analyst

xxxさん、

メールありがとうございます。　質問の答えは下に書きました。　よろしくお願いします。

Nick

Email from Japanese manager, to be replied in Japanese

Just got this email this morning…

No pressure… take your time… except your response time will also be taken into consideration… so hurry up! LOL. I sent the reply by 1:20pm.

From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:xxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo-inc.com]
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 7:27 PM
To: Nicholas Wang
Subject: RE: Saturn technical position: RX1xxxx18910 – Business Intelligence Analyst

Nickさん、
インタビューお疲れ様でした。

先週約束していた日本語のメールを遅らせていただきます。以下には、いくつかの質問が適宜に欄列しています。実際の仕事内容とは関係ないかもしれませんが、日本語の読み書きの理解力を判断できることを目的としています。お手数ですが、追って日本語でご返信ください。

1. ヤフー・ジャパンとの連絡方法は、基本的に八割ほどメール連絡となると思いますが、日本語でのメール通信に関しての自信はどれくらいありますか?時間的な要素も含めて返答してください。

2. 技術陣からの質問の例を以下に挙げます。これらの質問の意味と、どのような回答が期待されているのかを説明してください。

面接のためにチューターを探しました

先週の金曜日、ヤーフーHQの日本人マネージャーからemailを貰った（もらう）。　その昼、僕から電話して、日本語で面接試験をさしあげました。　その前の夜、チューターを雇った(やとう)。　一時間のなかに以下の例の言葉を受けたけど、本番の面接の時ぜんぜん使わなかった。

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
引っ越す　（ひっこします）　to move　

ー　自己紹介
　　　　　　　　つとめーwork
XX会社　に　勤めております　(名前）と申します。

XX大学　で　XXYY　を　勉強いたしました。

ー　志望動機(しぼうどうき)　はなんですか？
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　はたらくーwork-仕事をする
(Job Title applied for)　として　働くことは　以前からの目標でした。

(Current Company) で　５年間　(Current Job Title)　として
まなぶーto learn　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　to utilize
学んだ　知識と経験を　(Job Title applied for)　として　いかしてみたいと思ったからです。

ー　長所　・　短所　（ちょうしょ　・　たんしょ）
　　　　　ろんり　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　つねにどりょく
長所は　論理てきで　目標に向かって　常に努力をするところだと思います。
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　とりくみーeffort, (to handle, to manage?)
短所は　ひとつの事に　真剣に　取り組みすぎるところです。

ー　この仕事で何を学びましたか？
　　　　　のうりょく
自分の　能力に　自信を持てるようになりました。

　　じょうし　　どうりょう　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　たいしょ
ー　上司　や　同僚　と　問題がおきたとき、　どう（いうふうに）　対処しますか？
(no answer to this… too hard)

Finally… Any questions to ask Yahoo JP?
Y!JP　はソフトバンクによってマネージされていると聞きましたが、将来てきに　ほかのヤーフとの融合(ゆうごう）を考えていますか？
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Japanese tutor Thursday night, surprise interview Friday!!

Well, on Thursday, even though I was a little embarrassed and all, I decided to give the manager from Yahoo! HQ a call again. My thought was, even if she isn’t going to hire me for the Japanese / English Business Analyst, I could still convince her that I possess the right skills, so if she has any other B.I. positions open in the future… etc etc.

I called twice, she picked up the phone on the 2nd time, she seemed very busy, typing very fast… I quickly told her about why I had called back, that I had done some research on DataStage, and explained that I have a good understanding of the processes and technology behind it… etc. To my surprise, when I finished, she thanked me and told me that at this point, I’m going to be further interviewed by others, either about the technical stuff, or about my Japanese proficiency! I was shocked! Was I still in the game?

Oracle, DataStage, Japanese – What I’ll do so I can get the job next time!

Since yesterday’s disastrous interview, I seriously thought about what happened, and came up with a plan to address the problems.

Oracle
• I need to put Oracle way up there on my resume! Right now, I have SQL Server and MySQL listed. With Oracle, it’s not like I don’t know it, I just don’t work with it everyday. I did create a whole bunch of queries to export data from Oracle, but I do all of the data manipulation in SQL Server after the data are imported there. This situation is only going to get worse, as Hotjobs is in the middle of moving both the CRM and web apps onto new platforms, which will be moved to Yahoo!’s main campus in California. The old databases are being phased out after the migration.

Why hadn’t I study Japanese more seriously?

Just spoke with the manager for a Business Intelligence Analyst position I found on Yahoo!’s internal job board. This job is perfect for me! I’ve been working steadily toward Data Warehousing / Business Intelligence as my career path, this position requires Oracle skills (which I have, though not extremely efficient as I don’t work with Oracle databases everyday), DataStage (and ETL tool) and Japanese language skills.

Travel Blog – 2006/03/28 – Hakone, Japan

P1000618
Originally uploaded by cloneofsnake.

Woke up 5:30, check out 6:15, (phone charge ¥90), Oedo-sen opens at 6:30, we had to wait for gate to open. To Shinjuku (¥170 x 2), found Odakyu-sen (at South Gate) but needed lockers for our luggages. Asked Odakyu’s staff and he said their lockers are inside but couldn’t fit our luggages, told us to go to JR next door. Asked JR dude if I can go in to use the lockers, got in, bought milk (¥110) at conbini to get ¥1000 change for lockers (¥500 x 2). 7:00am, we still have time for breakfast, went out Southwest exit to Yoshinoya 吉野家, got 2 納豆定食 (natto ¥340 x 2), surprisingly, it was pretty good! Perhaps I’ve finally gotten used to the taste. (Compare this to the packaged natto we get from Family Mart in NYC, this was pretty good!)