Konnichiwa / Bonjour everybody,
I hope you are all well. I’m happy to announce that I’ve started a new project to share my passion for language and culture. As you may know, my life is all about language and culture, and my days are spent immersed in multilingual and cultural research. During my private lessons, I am inspired by the many interesting questions all of you ask. Your curiosity and love of learning also provide me with new and deeper insights on languages. Seneca might have said it best in Latin: “Homines, dum docent, discunt.” (People learn while they teach).
So, I decided to share my linguistic journey on a Patreon page, where you can find short lessons and the ideas I use to enhance the joy of the learning process and to provide confidence to students to explore more on their own. I post topics that catch my attention in media (similar to my newsletters), as well as linguistics, literature, quotes, interesting questions from students, and more. Many of my posts include Japanese, French, and English, as well as some Latin quotes. If you are interested, please have a look into it. Here’s a link to some of my public posts, where I talk about different viewpoints in the Japanese language, emotional grammar, the gender of the new word “COVID” in French, “yakuza-like language,” and more.
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. Hope you join me there!
ZINES ／ ジン
This month in San Francisco, Cammy, a Bay Area-based Japanese editor/designer, released a zine about San Francisco iconic bookstores. She also had released a zine about food in Tokyo in the past. She writes in Japanese and in English, and includes super cute drawings in the zines. You can get it this month at the San Francisco bookstore Silver Sprocket.
In the same store, you can also find zines by other Bay Area-based Japanese designers, including Yoshida Eishin. “Beer” features some of her favorite local breweries and taprooms. You can check out her website here: https://www.eishinyoshida.com/
TOKYO OLYMPICS ／ 東京五輪
 |
| I was in Tokyo during the Olympics, and although it was a crazy time to travel, it was great to be back home. Just after I entered the country, Tokyo announced a (COVID-19) state of emergency (緊急事態宣言 – kinkyuu jitai sengen). Restaurants had to close earlier and were forbidden to serve alcohol. Many events were cancelled. Employees were asked to work from home as much as possible, and Tokyoites were asked to go outside only for necessities. Because this was the fourth state of emergency since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people were jaded and just tired of it—in fact, I myself didn’t see much difference in Tokyo, where streets and stores were mostly as crowded as usual. With the current Japanese law, politicians cannot enforce a lockdown, so the guidelines are requests and resulted in a partial shutdown. People are angry at the government, whose popularity has decreased tremendously over the past year. Its handling of the pandemic has been widely criticized and after a year and a half because not much has improved. The vaccines have arrived very late, and the number of cases have increased since June, the worst wave of the virus so far. Another reason for Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide’s popular disapproval and the failure of the fourth state of emergency is that he insisted on hosting the Olympics and the Paralympics, despite requests from the Japanese people to postpone or cancel them. Suga’s loss of support is partly why he announced that he would not seek reelection as president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which means his term concludes at the end of September. |
OLYMPIC ART ／ 五輪アート
| Whether you are into the Olympics or not, you must admit that this French ad is very cool! It’s an amazing tribute and I love everything about it, from the respect for Japanese culture and tradition through animated sumo wrestlers to ukiyo-e, and mixed with a French artsy touch. Watch the ad here.Held in the midst of a pandemic and without any live audiences, the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics served as a source of inspiration for Japanese miniature artist Tanaka Tatsuya (田中 達也). Check out his Instagram account, where you can view his wit-filled work that explores many Japanese -related themes. |
COMEDY DUO ／ お笑いコンビ
In a previous newsletter two years ago, I mentioned a large scandal involving Japan’s most influential comedy production company, Yoshimoto Kogyo (吉本興業). Two high-profile comedians, Miyasako Hiroyuki (宮迫博之) and Tamura Ryo (田村亮), performed at a private party held by a criminal organization, and as a consequence, were unable to work for a while. Both comedians were each part of a different comedy duo, so their respective partners kept working solo during that time and waiting for their comebacks. In Japan, when celebrities do a questionable or criticized act—including cheating on their spouse or taking drugs, for example—they usually have to take some time off work to “reflect” on their behavior and offer a sincere apology. This reflection period or “humble period” is called 謹慎期間 (kinshin kikan). When celebrities consider enough time has passed, they usually hold a press conference or write a message on their platforms for their comeback where they once again apologize. After about six months, in January 2020, both comedians started their comebacks, but differently from one other. Tamura Ryo held a press conference with his comedy duo partner Tamura Atsushi, and was able to return to TV. On the other hand, Miyasako Hiroyuki started his own YouTube channel, as he wasn’t allowed to work with TV yet. While his channel grew successfully, his fans longed for his TV comeback—until he announced two weeks ago with his other comedy partner, Hotohara Tōru, that they were splitting, after more than 30 years of work together. This announcement shocked the entertainment world, because it is very rare for a comedy duo to split after so long. Duos often don’t get along very well, because they have been together for too long, and don’t necessarily work together anymore. But even in these situations, they rarely split. It was such a big deal that they officially announced it together on their iconic TV show, joined by other fellow comedians. They all talked about common memories of the duo, and some of them were even crying. It almost felt like the divorce of an old couple! That’s how deep and complex these comedy partnerships are in Japan.