We had little idea of how we would cope, whether we could provide an education for the children, and if three months later we would be home, shamefaced, saying 'Oh, it just didn't work out'.
Other emails ask for registration fees for conferences allegedly sponsored by WHO and for hotel reservations, again with the promise of certain benefits.
Ordinary Japanese may feel a sting of shame that such a big international brand has come a cropper, but they lost any real affection for JAL years ago.
Perhaps the reason why so many universities offer their students so little is they know studying at a top university remains a brilliant investment even if you don't learn anything.
Perhaps the interviewer fought with his or her spousethat morning, or perhaps the interviewer is sick. Or perhaps, for no reason, the interviewer is just in a foul mood.
In your personal life, your reaction to stressful situations like these might be to start Shouting, or to go hide in a corner and feel sorry for yourself for a while.
To be astonished by a question no one else can get worked up about, or to be astonished by a matter nobody considers a problem, is perhaps a better paradigm for the progress of science.
The evidence for Mozart therapy turned out to be weak, perhaps nonexistent, although the original study never claimed anything more than a temporary and limited effect.