Hi David - I hope you don't mind if I reply in English. I've been a subscriber to your Ogijima.fr emails (automatic I think?) for over a decade. I enjoy reading your articles in French but I think you should feel free to write in whichever language you want, whenever you want. You could mix the two if you want to reduce the number of blogs you're writing, and if any subscriber is upset they could always ask for a translation - or even get a pretty reliable translation themselves with a few button clicks. Either way, it's great reading some news from a quiet corner of Japan. I agree with Christophe that you could also post a few photos and write a bit less sometimes to make it less of a burden. Cheers,
No worries about writing in English. I see these newsletters are something more "flexible" than blogs, that's one of the reasons I'm becoming more and more a fan of the format. It has a similar energy to the one blogs had 15-20 years ago.
And that's one of the "issues" with my blogs; mixing languages in one blog is not good practice unless you keep them separate (like I did with swamp.media and liminalweb.site if you want to take a peek at them).
I have considered making setouchiexlorer.com bilingual in a similar way (still not excluding it) but the amount of work to move the important posts and pages from ogijima.fr would be considerable (and if I don't move them, it may just become a big mess). So yes, at the moment, I think I'll keep on posting mostly pictures on the French blog and not many big articles anymore.
The thing is (I may develop that in a future newletter if people are interested - I think I alluded to it in the video) that over time, both blogs have evolved in different ways. Not in terms of what content I produce, but how they're "perceived" in the outside world.
Ogijima.fr actually has a bigger following, as it is pretty much the only source in French of content about my region. Still, most readers are just "Japan fans" who can read French.
On the other hand, SetouchiExplorer.com has a much smaller "fan base" (If I may dare to call my readers 'fans') but it gets more visits from people actually coming to the area and researching information about it. And very importantly, it is the blog that I'm "known for" here in Takamatsu. I'm not talking about my ego being stroked or anything of the sort. I mean that it is the blog that is opening me many doors that are not usually open to random people with things related to the Triennale.
In short.
So yes, for the time being, I think I'll just keep on posting photos mostly on ogijima.fr, and reevaluate the situation later. :-) I'll keep on posting regular posts as often as possible on Setouchi Explorer.
I just looked at SetouchiExplorer.com - that's a beautiful little site, I'm not surprised it's popular and useful. It's really clearly laid out. If only we had time I'd love to get on a train down and visit some of these places! Unfortunately we fly back to London on Tuesday 😞
Merci David pour tout ce travail je comprends l'enervie que ça doit prendre. Je suis francais 25 ans a london et je comprends tres bien ta situation , garder les roots avec ces sacrés francais contre easy going anglo-saxon 😀je te suis depuis de nombreuses années et par ta passion j’ai poussé ma femme à acheter une maison sur teshima , j’ai rencontré qqs japonais parlant le français sur les iles et ça m’a fait bien plaisir.j’espère pouvoir un jour t’accueillir avec ta famille a teshima . Please garde ce french blog , peut etre moins d’ecriture et plus de photos pour moins t’epuiser??? Les francais sont compliqué mais ont un grand fond les anglais plus avenant mais superficiels??? Tout de bon en espérant pouvoir visiter la triennade 2022 cet automne et pourquoi pas te rencontrer? Please take care and keep going
Il y aurait des francophones sur Teshima ? Tu peux m'en dire plus ? Ça m'intrigue. C'est vrai que je n'ai plus de contact direct avec l'île depuis que ma seule connaissance (l'ancienne gérante de Shima Kitchen) est partie. J'ai seulement un peu parlé avec le couple de Usaginingen, mais seulement en ligne, on ne s'est étrangement jamais rencontrés.
Il faut dire que depuis le début de la pandémie beaucoup de choses tournent au ralenti (et je ne suis pas retourné sur Teshima depuis longtemps. J'espère cet été si B4-B5 ne débarquent pas trop vite vers chez nous).
Hi David - I hope you don't mind if I reply in English. I've been a subscriber to your Ogijima.fr emails (automatic I think?) for over a decade. I enjoy reading your articles in French but I think you should feel free to write in whichever language you want, whenever you want. You could mix the two if you want to reduce the number of blogs you're writing, and if any subscriber is upset they could always ask for a translation - or even get a pretty reliable translation themselves with a few button clicks. Either way, it's great reading some news from a quiet corner of Japan. I agree with Christophe that you could also post a few photos and write a bit less sometimes to make it less of a burden. Cheers,
Hugh
Hi thanks for your feedback.
No worries about writing in English. I see these newsletters are something more "flexible" than blogs, that's one of the reasons I'm becoming more and more a fan of the format. It has a similar energy to the one blogs had 15-20 years ago.
And that's one of the "issues" with my blogs; mixing languages in one blog is not good practice unless you keep them separate (like I did with swamp.media and liminalweb.site if you want to take a peek at them).
I have considered making setouchiexlorer.com bilingual in a similar way (still not excluding it) but the amount of work to move the important posts and pages from ogijima.fr would be considerable (and if I don't move them, it may just become a big mess). So yes, at the moment, I think I'll keep on posting mostly pictures on the French blog and not many big articles anymore.
The thing is (I may develop that in a future newletter if people are interested - I think I alluded to it in the video) that over time, both blogs have evolved in different ways. Not in terms of what content I produce, but how they're "perceived" in the outside world.
Ogijima.fr actually has a bigger following, as it is pretty much the only source in French of content about my region. Still, most readers are just "Japan fans" who can read French.
On the other hand, SetouchiExplorer.com has a much smaller "fan base" (If I may dare to call my readers 'fans') but it gets more visits from people actually coming to the area and researching information about it. And very importantly, it is the blog that I'm "known for" here in Takamatsu. I'm not talking about my ego being stroked or anything of the sort. I mean that it is the blog that is opening me many doors that are not usually open to random people with things related to the Triennale.
In short.
So yes, for the time being, I think I'll just keep on posting photos mostly on ogijima.fr, and reevaluate the situation later. :-) I'll keep on posting regular posts as often as possible on Setouchi Explorer.
I just looked at SetouchiExplorer.com - that's a beautiful little site, I'm not surprised it's popular and useful. It's really clearly laid out. If only we had time I'd love to get on a train down and visit some of these places! Unfortunately we fly back to London on Tuesday 😞
Merci David pour tout ce travail je comprends l'enervie que ça doit prendre. Je suis francais 25 ans a london et je comprends tres bien ta situation , garder les roots avec ces sacrés francais contre easy going anglo-saxon 😀je te suis depuis de nombreuses années et par ta passion j’ai poussé ma femme à acheter une maison sur teshima , j’ai rencontré qqs japonais parlant le français sur les iles et ça m’a fait bien plaisir.j’espère pouvoir un jour t’accueillir avec ta famille a teshima . Please garde ce french blog , peut etre moins d’ecriture et plus de photos pour moins t’epuiser??? Les francais sont compliqué mais ont un grand fond les anglais plus avenant mais superficiels??? Tout de bon en espérant pouvoir visiter la triennade 2022 cet automne et pourquoi pas te rencontrer? Please take care and keep going
Christophe
Merci pour ton commentaire.
Il y aurait des francophones sur Teshima ? Tu peux m'en dire plus ? Ça m'intrigue. C'est vrai que je n'ai plus de contact direct avec l'île depuis que ma seule connaissance (l'ancienne gérante de Shima Kitchen) est partie. J'ai seulement un peu parlé avec le couple de Usaginingen, mais seulement en ligne, on ne s'est étrangement jamais rencontrés.
Il faut dire que depuis le début de la pandémie beaucoup de choses tournent au ralenti (et je ne suis pas retourné sur Teshima depuis longtemps. J'espère cet été si B4-B5 ne débarquent pas trop vite vers chez nous).