oooh...man it hurt! today i was at the dental clinic (tokyo univ. hospital) for a wisdom tooth extraction operation. it was probably the most horrible experience ever! i'm telling you guys...there were some complications and it took an hour to get the wisdom tooth out. anyway, still alive. barely.
last tuesday i had the mid-term critic. three students presented their work, 1 minute each, and then the professors commented the works for 6 minutes. i don't know what happened but the professors totally disregarded me. so i didn't get any critic or comments. it left me a bit wondering about many things about the school.
the problem was maybe the lack of time and the fact that i spoke english while the other two students were japanese. (although i don't think they intentionally disregarded me because i spoke english). the japanese students at glance of course got better and longer comments than the foreigners...that's a fact!
i don't want to think that my work was so uninteresting that they, the professors, wanted to disregard me but my one minute presentation wasn't a very good one, that i can admit.
the no comment, or disregarding of works happened to a few other students too. anyway, that's the way it goes.
a friend of my commented that the professors only comment on what they think is intersting and do not give critic as a teacher; they lack the pedagocial talents and do not maybe understand that the critic sessions should be an occasion to comment on work that are both good and bad.
some pics from the week.
the mountain (fuji) seen from my apartment bldg.
a house in my neighbourhood
the critic that went down the drain.
sorry, no picture of my extracted tooth.
2 Comments
many of the foreign students find the system at todai bewildering.
supposedly it is the assistants who do the actual (western-style) teaching, though i never really saw them in my own lab. i have heard the same thing about teachers only commenting on the projects that interest them, which is an interesting way to go about things i suppose. I was also told the students are expected to learn through a process akin to osmosis that is entirely self-directed/motivated. All about environment I guess.
It doesn't entirely make sense to me but a Japanese classmate once told me that he was happy to be studying with an architect succesful in the real world (in his case Tadao Ando, I think ) and didn't care if the prof could actually teach or not.
one other reason for lack of comments is the professor's discomfort with English. I know a few speak very well, but have rarely heard them put it in practice.
Sorry about your tooth and your review! While obviously professors will have more to say about projects they strongly like (or dislike!) it seems pretty ludicrous that they said nothing to you. But then, six minutes for comments is pretty little as well.
I know nothing about the Japanese system, but pedagogy in architecture is generally pretty consistent around the world because there are some essentials to education. Comments from critics must be one of those essentials!
Do you find any opportunities to learn from the assistants (if there are any) or from the other students? What's the vibe like in studio?
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