Eastern Design Office, Inc.! & CIP Journal 1

So great news! I had an interview on Monday with the principals of Eastern Design Office, Inc. at their office in Suizome in Kyoto and I will be starting work for them next Monday :) It will be volunteer work mostly consisting of translating some of their essays and written works. Here is a link to their website in case you are interested in checking out their designs: http://www.eastern.e-arc.jp/top_E.html

I have also included in this post my first entry for my CIP (Community Involvement Project) requirement which this volunteer work will fulfill.

CIP Journal #1

Facts
Activity Date: October 5, 2009
Who was there?: Myself, Ms. Anna Nakamura, and Mr. Taiyo Jinno.
What did you do there?: I had an interview with Mr. Jinno and Ms. Nakamura regarding my volunteer work there. They showed me samples of their work and we discussed their recent projects as well as what they would like me to help them with. I also showed them a bit of my portfolio with my architecture work in it from Yale.

What Happened There?
I discussed my opinions of the work that Mr. Jinno and Ms. Nakamura showed me and they explained their current design philosophies that are currently centered around designing with the landscape. They showed me an interesting project of theirs for a house in Takarazuka and I gained a better sense of the type of architecture they are trying to create. I think their current pursuits about landscape are much more interesting than their previous fascination with the “slit”. See their Slit House and previous works that center on using slits and pattern to let light enter a building.
I think they had a good reaction to me and could understand my Japanese for the most part. I had difficulty explaining my architecture projects from my portfolio to them because I did not know the right Japanese vocabulary and grammar patterns to eloquently express my ideas. I think they were interested in my views of architecture and hopefully they were impressed that I have views on architecture that might be insightful to their work and ideas.

Reflections
I was intimidated by the interview setting at first and used very polite Japanese, but I had a little trouble using very polite keigo when I was concentrating on finding the right way to express my architectural thoughts. I think this happened because I do not know the right vocabulary to capture what I really want to say. My level of Japanese is somewhat similar to that of an elementary school student, so I was imagining an elementary school student trying to explain complex architectural concepts to me and I was very self-conscious that what I was saying sounded stupid (not only from content, which I am normally worried about whenever I present my work in front of educated critics) because I lack sophisticated language skills.
Mr. Jinno and Ms. Nakamura’s willingness to work with me to understand each other’s architectural thoughts was encouraging to me because it showed that they were patient and understood that I am still trying to study Japanese. I am very hopeful that I will learn a lot by doing this volunteer work that will help build a foundation for employment in Japan after KCJS is over.
I also discussed my working hours and what I am expected to do for the office at the meeting. I am a little apprehensive about the amount of responsibilities that I might end up undertaking if I do this volunteer work for them. I don’t want it to become overwhelming and take away from my time to study Japanese. I also hope that I can be helpful with my limited knowledge of Japanese in providing adequate translations or confirmations of translations of their works. They explained to me that they tried to submit a writing to an English architecture magazine, but it was rejected because they could not understand the translation. Hopefully such a failure will not occur as the result of my work.

How would you apply what you have learned in the future?
I don’t know how much I learned from this, but I definitely will try to focus on the Japanese words and expressions necessary for me to explain my architectural ideas when showing Japanese people my portfolio. The portfolio is of utmost importance to the hiring process and it is critical that I can express my ideas convincingly in Japanese and this has been added to my list of goals for this program.