Seminar(kenkyukai)
From: Korea

Harnessing pattern language to propagate the keys to a beautiful and fulfilled life throughout the world

One of the reasons for choosing my current laboratory is my strong interest in human behavior. At SFC I mix with other GIGA students from a wide range of countries and with Japanese students through my research groups. I discovered pattern language through a compulsory course during my first year, and joined the Generative Beauty pattern language research group to work on translation and localization into Korean of the lab book of 48 patterns for Generative Beauty, which provides solutions for a beautiful and fulfilled life. One simple example is a pattern for when you are tired or things are not going well, to take a day away from your normal activities with the freedom to do whatever you want to do, in order to refresh your mind. As part of the process of localization, photographs that were specific to the Japanese context were recast for the Korean context. In my third year, a large proportion of my time each week now goes into my project. I am now researching the adaptation of universal patterns to local contexts, and the possibility of transferring cultural patterns into other cultural contexts, and we have submitted a paper to the Collaborative Innovation Networks Conference (COINs). Through our experiences, including attending conferences and holding workshops both in Japan and overseas, and also writing theses, we really get to learn a lot beyond classroom instruction. Currently all members of the project are female, but there are also plans to expand it to include males in the future.

I was always interested in exploring other cultures and studying abroad, and after going to the UK at the age of 14 to attend high school there, I returned to Korea for a gap year during which I studied Japanese while applying to SFC. The freedom to choose any combination of courses is a major attraction of the GIGA Program. I am interested in stage management, and felt that computer science would be useful for stage design, and the GIGA Program has allowed me to study widely to really discover what I wanted to do, while also building my Japanese language ability. Three years ago I did not even know hiragana and katakana, and now I am able to use Japanese to converse with and learn from the other members of my research group. I really enjoy being able to communicate with people in different languages.

In the future I hope to make plays where people can truly enjoy the stage direction, but first I plan to go on to graduate school to further my studies in this area.

Note: Titles, affiliations, student years, etc. indicated for individuals are accurate at the time of January 2015.