Writing? Speaking? In what language?

Wow, it’s harder than it seems to have a sort-of-weekly newsletter. The previous one was… let me check… three weeks ago!!! Whoops. Sorry.

Well, the thing is that the original goal of this newsletter is to link to all the things I’ve written or posted online recently, but as I don’t want it to just be a series of links, I also try to write semi-interesting thoughts and reflections.

However, recently, I just didn’t have the time and energy to write anything on my blogs except for Setouchi Explorer as the Setouchi Triennale 2022 is happening now and all that. And even on that blog, I haven’t been writing as much as I should.

I’m not sure what has been happening, but most evenings, I just have zero energy, and I get sleepy before 10 pm (the time I usually write best, see, right now it’s 10:50 pm).

So, without new blog posts (except, as previously mentioned, on Setouchi Explorer, but if you’re mostly into my Japan things, the newsletter to subscribe to is that one: Setouchi Art & Island News), I didn’t really have a reason to write a newsletter, right?

I mean, are you really interested in what I think about this piece of news or that one?

Or maybe you are? If that’s the case, tell me, and I’ll definitely write more often here, even when I don’t have blog posts to share with you.

A language thing

Lately, I’ve also been wondering what language to write in. Until recently, I tried to divide my internet presence and my writing equally between my native language (French) and English (which is the language I used the most outside of my house these days). But while trying to write everything in two languages worked well when I seemed to have infinite amounts of time and energy, not so much anymore. Is it aging? No idea. Probably the toll of just being busier than usual for the past two years, probably.

As most of my audience is anglophone, there is no way I’ll stop using English online. Most of the web is still in English. Not only that, but in case you’re learning a foreign language, know that the key is to understand that linguistic skills are like sports or music skills more than anything else. You can “know” and study all you want, you need to practice regularly to be good at a language. And not having lived in an English-speaking country for 17 years, if I don’t want to lose my English, I have no choice but use it as much as possible in as many contexts as possible.

On the other hand, it does feel strange to use my native language less and less. I almost feel like I’m betraying my own culture or something. However, these days, every time I write in one language something I have already written in the other language, I feel that it’s a waste of time and that I should be writing something new instead of repeating myself.

So yeah, I have decided to not write in duplicate anymore unless really necessary. We’ll see what happens.

Any links today?

Alright, I do have a few things to share with you nonetheless.

First, is a video I shot this weekend. I’m trying something new. A video journal. Tell me what you think.

If you half care about Japan or contemporary art, you may have heard that Yayoi Kusama’s Yellow Pumpkin on Naoshima has had an unfortunate accident last summer. A lot of people have been lamenting about whether it would be fixed or replaced.

If you’re one of these people, I have news for you:

"Will Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin return to Naoshima?”

And while we’re on the topic of contemporary in Japan, make sure to check my blog post about “The Way to the Moon,” Leonid Tishkov’s amazing installation, which is only available until Wednesday!

I have great friends

Everybody does, but mine even more.

And as I don’t have many personal links to share today, I could tell you about them in particular.

First, my friend Matt! We met 22 years ago, as I just arrived in Florida. He was my first roommate there, and we never lost touch. Nowadays, he lives in Minnesota and he writes books for children. He’s just a great guy overall, and he just started a blog. His first one! You should check it out and subscribe: “On the Ice.”

You probably have heard about my homonymous friend David from Australia. I’ve talked about him before here as he’s a co-author of Swamp Media (which is sleeping at the moment, but it’ll return).

We met as he had just started a great global adventure. Not your usual trip around the world, but literally a new format for living. The “global” aspect was cut short because of the pandemic, but the format survived the end of travel. Well, just watch his videos and you’ll understand better:

Alright, I guess this is all for today.

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See you as soon as possible.

Take care and stay safe.