Hi all,
I’m a MEXT master student (28F)on my first semester in Japan, embassy recommended.
I have been in Japan for around a year and I’m having problems with my professor, there were a lot of red flags at the beginning that I just didn’t understand.
You see, my professor is Vietnamese and was also MEXT embassy recommended 15 years ago, now he is a professor and has its lab with another Japanese professor.
The reason I chose him is because besides he is related to my research topic, I thought because of him being MEXT as well he would understand the difficulties by living abroad and all this stuff but no.
He is really dismissive towards anything I say or propose, he has big outbursts of rage and starts screaming to other lab members, mostly does that to foreigners in the lab, never to Japanese guys. (I think he has some resentment issues)
Everyone in my lab is so kind and sweet but I cannot keep going with this professor he devalues everything I say, doesn’t like written communication (emails) because he says i twists his words, but I started mainly communicating by emails because he is the one who twists my words in conversations.
My read watch is not progressing as he never proposes anything and all my proposals gets discarded so I’m scared I might not do well on future presentations.
I get frustrated so much that my mental is going down the drain.
He once told me the only option I have is going back to my country, but I already asked the international department and I can actually change professors within my department and university!! Which was mind blowing for me.
Now that I know this, I want to change professors and want to chose better but I’m scared I’m going to make the same mistake as I did before. Does any one have any recommendations on how to pick a good professor? Or at least how to identify and avoid a possible narcissistic shitty professor?
Sorry for the long post but I have no one else to ask ):
3 comments
1. Ask other students who worked under different professors what they think of their bosses.
2. Find a professor who doesn’t overwork themself and who is well organized (lab physical organization, time and schedule and even ideas).
3. Usually a smaller Lab where you deal directly with the main professor is better than a large lab where the main professor is your supervisor only for official matters.
4. A professor who is a good teacher is more likely to be a good supervisor.
Try asking this over at r/mext since it’s full of mext scholars 👍
In regards to changing advisors, that’s something you need to talk to your school about. I know of some that have managed to change advisors without a problem at my school — just a simple complaint and boom they got switched. Granted, it was early within M1 so this is pretty much a now or never situation.
Get an email of the new professor you want to study with. Write something like “Dear professor B. My name is Soft Tomato, and I am a student from professor’s A zemi. While doing my research with professor A I realised that the topic you focus on might suit my research profile better. Could you kindly share some contacts of the students from your zemi so I can ask them about the details?” If professor B responds to this message normally then you can determine if they are a good professor or not. If they provide emails of their students then it’s even better, and you can message them and ask for their opinion.
Anyway, don’t say it outright to the professor B that professor A was rude to you, this might make you look as a “problematic person”. Just ask around some people connected to the professor of your choosing. Reading their research/looking at their profile photos will not help as great researches and good looking people might still be shitty professors.
And of course if you can take their course first it would be helpful, but you might not be able to change your professor after the 1 semester so keep this in mind.
I am an MA student from Waseda University, but I’ve never met actually shitty professors so my advice might sound irrelevant. Idk why, but my own MA supervisor seems to think that I am a bit autistic for some reason, but that’s not a big deal for me 😅