Dad Sensei

Stories from an African Student in Japan can easily be drawn from any angle, but as a scientist let me stick to what could be an input to Universities of emerging markets.

Japan's university academic structure is different from the African and western models of education. Albeit, they offer lectures where a Professor stands in front of a class and explains, course-works and exams  like any university in the World,there is one unique difference "The Sensei" .

Sensie: is a Japanese word that literary translates to " a person born before/experienced than another".

At a University, every student has a Sensei, and the Sensei is the Supervisor of the student's final dissertation project. A Student is assigned or chooses a Sensei right from the start of his/her academic program, and will be under that Sensei's main supervision for his/her entire university program. This does not exclude, the particular student to receive lectures, tests and guidance from other Professors. Up-to now, I guess it looks exactly the way you know it elsewhere in the world's University programs.
Borrowing from a personal experience studying at a Japanese University, a Sensei is much more than just lectures, your Sensei will;

1. Offer personalized career guidance: Forget about the Auditorium based "Career guidance" structures where a prominent person is invited to offer a lecture of how they made it and that's it. A Sensei, will spare time out of their busy schedules to have a cup of coffee with you (student) regularly and together explore what careers, the future holds.

2. Act as a big brother/ big sister: Leaving the Class issues aside, your Sensei might as well invite you for a coffee, give you a lift to a park or even help you discover a price friendly shop. Do not get shocked if when your internet jams at your 10km away apartment from the university,and your Sensei voluntarily drives to your apartment to fix it for you free of charge (of-course).
Up-to now, I still can not believe it or figure out how, despite my Sensei's extremely busy schedules that involves things like reviewing research papers,business trips,supervision of PHD students' research papers, or working on a complex cloud based solution for over 10 hospitals, he will still find time to drive me to an awesome shopping area.

Carrying my luggage in my Sensei's Car

3.Act as a mentor: A Sensei designs 2 Dimensional academic programs, 1-the usual fundamental joint class work material and 2-personalized material that drives each student to realizing their individual dreams.
This is extremely important!, whereas back in the days it was okay for all students in a class to study a particular domain and have a common understanding, Today's world demands extreme creativity and high levels of specialization. You must be extremely good at something otherwise, you will never find a job or be useful to your community.

The one shoe fits all days are gone. If its a Computer Science class, some students have interests in Data Mining, Cryptography or Web-Application development. Whereas all computer science students should take fundamentals of computer science as in Academic Curriculum says, a Sensei will carry an extra effort to offer side insights/books to read/references/new tricks to the students that match their different interests.

4:Keep class environment as friendly as a home: From Universal Primary Education in Uganda through First ranked secondary schools to modern University classrooms in Africa, a typical classroom always has only about 4 items (chalks/computers-students-lecture and furniture.) but in Japan's classrooms there is something extra.
Only in Japan, will a Sensei, give you a break time and cut for you some fruits, offer some snacks or make for you a cup of coffee or surprise you with a Halloween Cake. Much as some people might claim that fruits and chocolates are for kindergarten, such small things mean a lot in terms of psychology (if I borrow recent Mark Zuckerberg's psychology behind 1-T-Shirt). An apple shared with classmates, psychologically relieves a mind that has been cracking "a triple integral maths calculation" and replaces the "lost energy/dead cells".

5:Strive to build an academic relationship with his/her students:A Sensei will consequently develop a Dad-like relationship with his/her students. Sensei regularly asks each of his/her students to present about anything, or how they are doing over their usual life and more.

Conclusion:
Doing all the above 5 items is not stipulated in a Sensei's contract with a university, it is a culture.
This is a culture, worth borrowing a leaf from.

Such a culture builds a strong bond between the Sensei and his/her students, similar to the "Dad-Son" or "Mum-Daughter" bond, to the extent that a student ends up working extremely hard to succeed so as not to disappoint/spoil the bond.

Anyway, I do not need to detail what such a bond can lead to, since if I tell you to pose and look around you,you will either read "Toyota, Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic brand or an article about a Japanese Nobel Laureate .

Dutahe!!!!

A JAPANESE MAGIC BUS DRIVER

A Japanese Magic Driver

Wearing Sparkling White Gloves is the Bus Driver

Growing up in villages of East Africa and later on moving into its cities, one big challenge that I experienced was copping up with the reckless tax drivers while crossing streets.

A friend of mine once asked a Kampala Tax Driver, why he had almost knocked her while she was crossing at a Zebra-crossing and the Driver replied her “Gwe Zebra?” literary meaning “Are you the un knock-able Zebra?”.

Conversely, as I move along streets of Tokyo and Sendai, I am usually amused by the meticulousness and hospitality of “Japanese Bus Drivers”. Below you will find why I chose to call the Japanese Bus Driver a “Magic Bus Driver”;

1.He only makes a 2 Minutes Delay Margin: Across the Japan Cities’ bus stops, you will find a Bus Schedule that stipulates the different arrivals of the different “buses that pass-by your current bus stop”. Public Buses begin circulating the city at 7am till 9pm, with a schedule that has several intervals like 7:45am, 8:10am, 8:34am and so on. Trust me, just like the figure is 8:34am, irrespective of rain or some traffic jams that could have happened along the way of the given bus, once the clock ticks 8:34am, magically  you suddenly see the bus arriving. Imagine a bus that moves say across Kampala {Old Tax Park – Gayaza}, Nairobi {City to Garden Estates},Dar{Posta-Survey}, or Kigali {Kanombe-Rubangura}  and makes a stopover at each of the bus stops along the way while respecting the different schedules marked at each bus stop.

This might seem to be the same throughout all developed economies, but wait! There is the Bullet Train {Shinkansen} that traverses the Main Cities of Japan. Shinkansen travels at a speed of 320km/hr and departures around every 9 minutes, has all its seats and toilets cleaned at every stop and guess what, it only makes a “6 seconds average delay time per day”. I repeat 6seconds delay after a figure got by summing up delay time of its over 10trips a day.

2.He says Arrigato Gozaimasu to each of the over 50 passengers: You cannot believe it, unless you have boarded a Japanese public bus. The Driver, despite being meticulous on keeping his over 50 passengers bus on route, he will pose as each passenger gets off the pass to say “Arigato Gozaimasu –Thank you” and this is done for each passenger. It is not just that, the Driver will also once in while “say a word to welcome passengers on board over his/her microphone”.

3.He sticks to a constant speed of 40km/hour: Whereas the Japanese driver will keep the 2minutes delay margin only, he will not rush or try to accelerate past 40km/hour. I once sat right next to the driver to see if there could be a lock on his accelerator pedal like “our failed Technology in East African Buses that called SpeedGovernor”. A SpeedGovernor was a fabricated sensor (most probably made from one of the Jua Kari) that would cut fuel flow to the Engine whenever the driver accelerated past 90km/hour. The Technology worked for a few months and later disappeared. In Japan, things are different, the speed governor is naturally embedded in the Driver’s Leg, the buses can race up to 180km/hr but to the magic Driver, driving at 40km/hr is the best choice especially when you have over 50 people at your back.

4.He also tells humorous anecdotes and teaches history&culture. This time, it is not every Japanese Bus Driver, but if you happen to board other Public Buses, like the one I did board called Loop Sendai Bus, then you get to test another experience of the magic driver.

Loop Sendai is a bus that traverses the city of Sendai {Biggest Town of Tohuku Region}, passing by the city’s historical sites and natural beauties. For your Information “Sendai is a lovely city full of green”.

The Driver of LoopSendai Bus has a microphone attached to his chin and will simultaneously drive as he explains history of Sendai, throws some jokes {that leave those who understand Japanese laughing to crack their ribs}.

5.He monitors in real time every centimeter of the entire Bus: The bus has 8 mirrors (that is: 2 usual side mirrors, and 6mirrors inside the bus). The Bus Driver synchronously crosschecks through all the 6 mirrors, before takeoff to verify if all passengers are okay, not to mention that he occasionally poses to see if you are dropping the exact fare into a coins case embedded onto the bus.

Now that I got a Jitensha, I hardly get to meet the Magic Driver again, but he is a man I respect and had I not seen him old, may be my dream would not have been today's but rather a Bus Driver too.

Dutahe!!!.