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There might be a body of historical purely Japanese scientific research, but I know some Japanese physicists who all speak English well enough, and have heard o

There might be a body of historical purely Japanese scientific research, but I know some Japanese physicists who all speak English well enough, and have heard others on podcasts who do also. It would be serevely limiting to not speak English when that is the language of modern science. I don’t know how far back you would have to go to find monolingual scientists but I would guess several decades at least.

xorbax 3y ago
I find it sort of implausible that somebody high in their field is totally ignorant in English, if only because so many papers are only published in English. I've known so many researchers who apologize every other sentence because they say they've only read English and I would never had known otherwise. Which is to say - it'd be wierd to say "well I don't know English and I don't know anybody who does oh well". But, anyway, the papers were published on aeXive in...
rtpg 3y ago
There are plenty of Japanese scientists who are _at least_ extremely uncomfortable in English. Plenty of people who struggle to write their own stuff in English and get it corrected a lot. Though I think that beyond a certain level you have to be interacting internationally to get anywhere in your career so you're gonna be forced along. Plenty of people would learn Latin to consume some content, but doesn't mean they are proficient in it itself, would be another example. Having said that, I think that in the research field that merely ends up with "very confusingly written papers with mistakes large enough to hide process errors" more than "cannot communicate any info in English". But there are plenty of people who get their doctorate and their only English-language output is their final papers in themselves.
Sharlin 3y ago
You realize there’s an incredibly obvious selection bias in your sample?
- porknubbins 3y ago
  If you mean I am not aware of the ones that don’t speak English, not really, I have worked and gone to university in Japan and know a large number of people with whom I only speak in Japanese because their English skills are not good. Among working research physicists (not just Phds working on some company) under 45 I have found solid English skills as a rule, probably because international experience is important to their careers.

xorbax 3y ago

I find it sort of implausible that somebody high in their field is totally ignorant in English, if only because so many papers are only published in English. I've known so many researchers who apologize every other sentence because they say they've only read English and I would never had known otherwise. Which is to say - it'd be wierd to say "well I don't know English and I don't know anybody who does oh well". But, anyway, the papers were published on aeXive in...

rtpg 3y ago

There are plenty of Japanese scientists who are _at least_ extremely uncomfortable in English. Plenty of people who struggle to write their own stuff in English and get it corrected a lot. Though I think that beyond a certain level you have to be interacting internationally to get anywhere in your career so you're gonna be forced along. Plenty of people would learn Latin to consume some content, but doesn't mean they are proficient in it itself, would be another example. Having said that, I think that in the research field that merely ends up with "very confusingly written papers with mistakes large enough to hide process errors" more than "cannot communicate any info in English". But there are plenty of people who get their doctorate and their only English-language output is their final papers in themselves.

Sharlin 3y ago

You realize there’s an incredibly obvious selection bias in your sample?

porknubbins 3y ago
If you mean I am not aware of the ones that don’t speak English, not really, I have worked and gone to university in Japan and know a large number of people with whom I only speak in Japanese because their English skills are not good. Among working research physicists (not just Phds working on some company) under 45 I have found solid English skills as a rule, probably because international experience is important to their careers.