First thing this morning, after a half hour department meeting, I gave my presentation on architectural education in the USA to my coworkers and other members of our department. During one of the first weeks, a few of my coworkers had asked me if I would put a PowerPoint or PDF presentation together so they could see some of the work I’ve done and learn more about the process for becoming an architect in the United States. I’ve been receiving some feedback for the past few weeks about what everyone wanted to see, so I decided to try and cater to everyone’s interests.
The slideshow was partly a presentation on the full process for becoming a licensed architect in the USA, partly a portfolio, and partly a visual explanation of the cities I’ve lived in. A small, running theme to tie the presentation together was a chronological biography of my journey from Sleepy Eye to Minneapolis to Oaxaca to Portland and finally to Shanghai. When I got to the slide about the cost of tuition for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees and the course requirements, everyone let out a gasp and started frantically speaking to each other in Mandarin. To preface this, I should add that I used Google translator to try and change most of the bullet points in the presentation to Chinese characters. Just as I was wondering if I accidentally wrote something profane, Asihan, one of my coworkers who was acting as my translator, turned to me and explained that our tuition cost is much higher than in China. If I understood her correctly, the yearly tuition cost for my coworkers had been about 7000 RMB or a little under $1000.00. Other than this shocker, the presentation went wonderfully and we held a short Q&A session afterwards. Apparently I ended up translating all of the text to something understandable though not necessarily grammatically correct. There were a few times when I would turn to Asihan after speaking, and all I would get would be a blank stare and, “What? I do not understand professional words. My English is not that good.” Somehow everything worked out perfectly.
The language barrier is one of the most priceless experiences here in Shanghai. Avik was telling me that the other day when he was discussing his current project with one of his coworkers, he asked, “What kind of materials are we using for this project?” and his coworker replied, “This project is located in the Huangshu city.” Just a part of daily life here at Xian Dai! Sketching and hand gestures are key.
Over the weekend, Avik, Reina, and I had the chance to visit the M50 Galleries, a village of old warehouses that have been converted to artist galleries along Suzhou Creek. It was a beautiful, industrial labyrinth of street art, artist studios, and mixed-media galleries that seemed to grow larger the more we explored.
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