日本の環境に優しい建築, or Japanese Green Architecture, earned Xueyuan Wang (middle row, right), a Will Rice College senior, the Gold Award in the College I division at this year’s J.LIVE Talk on Saturday, November 14. J.LIVE (Japanese Learning Inspired Vision and Engagement) Talk is an annual Japanese language presentation competition sponsored by the Japanese program at George Washington University. This year’s competition was held on Zoom.
Xueyuan is a student in Dr. Hiromi Takayama’s Third-Year Japanese I (JAPA 301) class. This is her third semester of Japanese study at the Center for Languages and Intercultural Communication. Xueyuan started learning Japanese as a high school student in Singapore. She and some friends formed a band performing Japanese pop songs and she started studying Japanese in order to understand the lyrics. After completing CLIC's Language Placement Test, she placed into Second-Year Japanese I (JAPA 263) and studied for two semesters with Dr. Naoko Ozaki.
J.LIVE Talk presentations are similar to TED talks. Judges, who include faculty from Japanese universities and an official from the Japanese Embassy in Washington D.C., evaluate each presentation for dynamism, vision, and level of engagement.
Dr. Takayama learned about J.LIVE Talk from her colleague, Dr. Ozaki, and encouraged her students to submit videos to the preliminary round. Five of her students submitted videos. Xueyuan and classmate Hannah Meeks had their presentations selected for the semifinal round. The judges selected Xueyuan’s presentation for the final round, where she presented live. “I actually never expected to win anything when I submitted for the first round,” said Xueyuan. “I did not even think of getting into the semifinal.”
An Architecture major, Xueyuan is interested in the Japanese design industry and hopes to work in a Japanese design studio one day. Encouraged to choose a topic she is passionate about, Xueyuan decided on Japanese green architecture. “I wanted to talk about Japanese Architecture and the relationship to natural environment is a very important aspect of Japanese architecture.”
Both Dr. Takayama and Dr. Ozaki helped Xueyuan prepare for the final, live presentation. They met with her to give feedback on pronunciation and intonation and practiced questions and answers with her. Xueyuan noted that the final round was on the weekend of her final charrette week for architecture, so it was a very busy time for her.
Dr. Takayama praised Xueyuan, noting that she used her initiative and made her own decisions about the presentation. “She was always serious and responsible for choosing what worked best for her and how she could perform the best.”
Xueyuan will graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in May 2021 and will continue her studies for two more years to earn her Bachelors in Architecture. Next year she will have an internship and return to Rice the following year to complete her studies. She wants to pursue a design career. Perhaps she will have the opportunity to work in a Japanese design studio.
Follow this link for more information about J.LIVE Talk.