Chapter 15 Shock from the Shinkansen conductor (2)

I was used to taking the domestic green leather train, and I couldn't help being surprised when I stepped into the Shinkansen train.The cabin is spotless, comfortable, spacious, clean and bright, making people feel as if they have entered an unreal world.Even though the speed is over 200 kilometers per hour, the Shinkansen runs extremely smoothly, and I don't even feel the start and stop.It was only when I saw the lights moving in the distance outside the window that I realized I was speeding away from Tokyo to Nagoya. What shocked me more than the Shinkansen itself was the Shinkansen train attendants.After entering the car, they all bow to the passengers and say "Welcome to the Shinkansen" in a very soft voice.Then I walked over slowly pushing a food cart, and kept saying hello all the way, whispering softly and smiling, which made people feel like a spring breeze.When leaving the carriage, he would turn his head and bow again, saying, "I am causing trouble to everyone, please enjoy the journey."Out of curiosity, I got up and went to other carriages, because it was late and some carriages were empty.But to my great surprise, I found that the conductor pushing the freight car was still bowing towards the unoccupied carriage, with no slack on his face.I can't help sticking out my tongue, the service of the Japanese is really more thoughtful than what I saw on TV or movies.

I learned caution and dedication in Japan Soft management plays an extremely important role in business operations.In the Shinkansen train attendant, for the first time, I strongly felt the Japanese pursuit of 100% perfect way of doing things.The pursuit of order and details, the nature of prudence and hard work, this is the spirit of the Japanese nation.The most standardized nation in the world must be Japan. I lived in Japan, known as the kingdom of service, for 5 years, and gradually got used to the way of service there.After leaving Japan, especially when I have the opportunity to travel to Japan again, I often lament the effect of the soft management there.It may not be a restaurant or coffee shop with very good hardware, but the thoughtful service there makes you feel warm and makes you feel that it is worth the money.For the same aircraft type, the air tickets of JAL and ANA are 30% higher than those of other airlines, but the passenger rate is higher than other airlines, which is also the reason.

I was very lucky in my study abroad journey. I was able to study in Japan and the United States successively.When I arrive in a new country, my attitude is to learn the excellent things of that country.In a way, Japan has influenced me more than America.5 years in Japan, The dedication, diligence, and prudence of the Japanese at work have profoundly changed my frizzy character in the past, and I have become very meticulous and standardized. specification and replication I have always emphasized the importance of "copying" in working methods.In fact, this "copy" mode of thinking and behavior is what I first learned in Japan.

When I was shocked by the service of the Shinkansen conductors, I tried to discover the mystery.Later, I observed that all the train attendants on the Shinkansen spoke exactly the same words, and they had all undergone rigorous training in advance.Even the angles at which they wear their hats, the positions of their corsages and small silk scarves are all stipulated by the company and cannot be changed at will. Whether it is the service industry or the internal management of enterprises, the Japanese pay special attention to standardization.The so-called specification is to copy, to develop a best standard, and then repeat it constantly.

In the service industry, regulation is the most important.Later, when I led Shanghai Microsoft, because technical support is also a service-oriented job, this method was widely adopted in the company's daily management. Nagoya is here.It was late, but the whole city was still bright with neon lights.A brother from the Nagoya Chinese Student Association came to pick us up. He has been in Japan for more than 4 years. He looks like a Japanese in appearance, and his fluent Japanese makes us envious.He took us to our respective quarters.Before, no matter from TV or magazines, I saw tall buildings everywhere in Japan.In my imagination, the residence should be in a spacious room in a beautiful building, but unexpectedly I was arranged to live in a Japanese home.In a quiet alley, a small room in an old-fashioned bungalow, and the room was divided into two, shared by me and another classmate.The room was dimly lit, except for two quilts and tatami mats, the walls were empty.

I barely slept that night, and the cold, hard floor made me uncomfortable.I can't help but think of what my classmates who went to study in the United States said about how good their life is there. Compared with the two, I seem to have come to a third-rate society.Could it be that my long-awaited study abroad life begins here? The mood quickly fell to the bottom from the excitement and excitement that lasted all day, as if being suddenly awakened from a dream, but it was difficult to find the way to return to the dream.In this drowsy half-sleep, the most dramatic day of my life came to an end.

My tutor asked me to revise my thesis 23 times After a sleepless night on the first night, I went shopping on the second day, and what I saw and heard really made me feel the development of Japan's material life.Whether it is a supermarket or a department store, there are everything you need.The color TVs here are not only much cheaper than in China, but also have a wide variety of varieties.But I didn't expect that there were new surprises waiting for me. Two days later, my classmate and I went out for a walk in the evening and picked up a bicycle.It turns out that the Japanese like to pursue new trends, and as long as things at home are outdated, they must be eliminated.Many Japanese people also like to compare each other. It is very embarrassing if customers point out that something has been used for a long time.According to the regulations of the government, there are two days a week when you can throw out bulky garbage such as furniture and household appliances.Unlike Chinese people, the Japanese don't think picking up things is a shameful thing, and they will pick up good things when they see them.The government also encourages such behavior, because it can promote the reuse of old materials and reduce the pressure on environmental protection.

Later, my classmates and I picked up things and also picked up experience.Gradually, our residences are fully furnished, including TV sets, refrigerators, and microwave ovens.The first TV we picked up was a 14-inch color TV, and although it required manual tuning (Japan had entered the era of remote controls by then), it worked very well.We were so excited that we immediately wrote to our family to brag about it. With the bicycle, I started to go to school by bicycle, and my life gradually got on the right track.Going to school in the morning and returning to the residence in the evening, every day is tense and fresh.

I majored in Electrical and Electronics at Nagoya University.In this major, when I was in China, my initial research direction was electrical audio.My dream at the time was to become the first person in China's electrical audio field. After returning to China, I will create the sound effects of all the first-class concert halls in China.But when I registered at Nagoya University, I found out that the tutor I had chosen had retired, and I had to change to a tutor.The new teacher's name is Itakura Fumada, who also studies the field of sound, and his main direction is speech signal processing.He was originally a doctor at Nagoya University, and later became a researcher at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT). He made worldwide achievements in the field of speech recognition research, and the school recruited him back as a professor.He is also an academician of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and has held the top spot in this field for 20 years.

I have already passed the domestic master's entrance examination. I thought that as an exchange student in Japan, I didn't need to take the Japanese entrance examination at all.But Mr. Itakura told me that in order to be admitted to his graduate school, one must pass a total of 5 homework entrance examinations.This is a great test for me.I have never been involved in the field of phonetic research before, and the exam is all in Japanese, which is a big problem for both majors and languages.In addition, the exam time is December 5th of that year, which means that there is only about one and a half months of review time.

During that time, I had to attend all the research meetings in the supervisor's research room at the same time.I'm more stressed than ever and my days run like clockwork.Itakura-sensei was also worried about me.I told him that I might fail the exam because I really couldn't finish reading those professional books.I even considered that if I failed the exam, I would pass the Ministry of Education and change to another school, but Mr. Itakura disagreed, thinking that this would damage his face.Miraculously, I passed the exam after a month and a half.Mr. Itakura congratulated me, he was very satisfied with my achievement.This is also the first time he complimented me. Itakura-sensei is the toughest professor at Nagoya University and the most tempered Japanese I have ever met.He has extremely strict requirements for students, and his attitude is almost arrogant, as if we are not graduate students, but a group of kindergarten children.He asked everyone to choose their own research topics, and to report the research results of the past week to everyone in the laboratory meeting for half an hour every Friday.This has become the greatest pressure for students.I have no experience in choosing topics and doing research, and I am often reprimanded by Mr. Itakura. "Someone did this kind of topic 10 years ago", "You still have the nerve to come up with such a bad topic", and so on, it's almost like picking one and being scolded. The first topic I passed was speech recognition and human-computer dialogue, which has become the most important topic in my research career since then.I found this topic when I was looking at English papers in related fields. Others have already made a solution, but it is relatively rough.I thought the topic was good, so I put forward my own plan based on his, and made it with a computer in the laboratory, and the results I got were also very satisfactory. When reporting on Friday, this research topic was approved by Itakura teacher on the spot, and he said that I found a trick.I also know in my heart that this is actually not a difficult topic, but no one has found a better solution.I got a better result because of a breakthrough in thinking.I've been down this road ever since. In the field of Mr. Itakura's research, there are two major societies in Japanese academia: the Japan Acoustic Society and the Japan Electronics, Information and Communications Society.These two societies have public academic paper publishing meetings every year, the former twice a year, the latter once a year.According to Mr. Itakura's request, his graduate students have to publish their papers at the three conferences. After I finished my first society paper, I handed it over to Mr. Itakura for review.When I got my paper again, I was stunned.I saw that it was full of red handwriting, and various problems such as language, thinking, technology, and expression were changed in various ways.I corrected it over and over again, thinking I could pass it, but I was sent back again.Itakura-sensei is a person who pursues super perfection. Sometimes because of an irregular punctuation mark, the wrong size of the letters in the attached drawing, the wrong proportion of the mathematical formula, or even the wrong font size of the annotation text, he will let me take it back. Change it again.I revised it over and over again, a total of 23 times, and I just passed the first academic paper. It is very distressing for me to repeat such a paper.What I especially don’t understand is that everyone’s aesthetic point of view is different. He thinks small fonts are beautiful, but I think big fonts are beautiful. Why do you have to ask me to agree with him?Later, I gradually realized that his experience is enough to support him to make the most accurate judgment, and he knows what is the most appropriate arrangement in a paper.Under his training, I finally gradually learned how to grasp the feeling of writing a thesis.I have to write 3 academic papers every year, and I am revising them every time.A year later, I amended 10 passes. After 5 years, it finally became a pass. After the thesis is written, the next step is to prepare the speech when the thesis is read at the society.Before each speech, each student rehearses at least three times in front of Mr. Itakura.The slide presentation software PPT (Powerpoint), which is commonly used in meetings and speeches today, had not yet come out at that time. At that time, we used OPT (Overhead Projector, projection slide projector) to make slides.He stipulated that we summarize the entire paper in 10 slides.How to clearly explain the content of a paper in 10 pages, where is the focus, how to draw diagrams, and how much text to write, he taught me the most standardized way.During the rehearsal, Mr. Itakura requested that the rehearsal be completed on time within 15 minutes, and the degree of time control should be accurate to the second.In the first year, when I gave a speech at the society, I was basically holding a paper and reading, and then gradually I was able to give a speech without a script, and I was able to control the time and rhythm very well.In the future, my speech skills will largely benefit from the guidance of Mr. Itakura.