I actually haven't updated my website in many years ......
Besides, I've been struggling for years with the reality that "I'm no longer an active racing driver, so I don't need to sell my name.
" Maybe I should close the website ?"
Having a website means expressing myself to the world.
But how do I express Who I am when I'm losing myself ?
I was spending years of my life wandering in the darkness.
I don't want to live my life in a way that hangs on to my past glories.
But I don't wanted to close website and become like a missing person ...... that I was worried.
What can I do? No, I wondered what should I do.
The war in Ukraine started while I was still buried in such feelings.
I thought, "How I can help to Ukrainian people?"
I have started to offer free French lessons to Ukrainians who have evacuated to France.
I have often been told this when I started this project and since I started.
Why Japanese company offer free French lessons to Ukrainians?
"Ukraine is such a far away country, I don't see how it could be related."
"It's kind of strange, isn't it?"
"It's a little strange, but I guess you can...," etc.
Indeed, from Japan's perspective, Ukraine is a distant country 8,000 km away.
Although everyone knows about the current war, for most Japanese people,
it is a situation that they only have news about, and it is somebody else's business.
I am offering a free lesson to people in such a distant country, which is of no benefit to the company.
Do they think I am a dubious person, perhaps?
Just when I was feeling a little unsure of myself, I looked at my homepage, ......,
and to my surprise, it had disappeared.
I thought, "Well, if I think about it calmly, if I haven't updated anything for more than 8 years and haven't maintained it, it is possible or natural that it would disappear due to a problem."
What was even more indescribable was that I hadn't even looked at my own website for a few months? A few years? I didn't remember if it had been few months or few years.
In other words, I didn't even know when it had disappeared, the main website had vanished without a trace, but the Ameba blog was barely safe.
When I saw the devastation, my feelings were very sobering.
The person I am today is a completely different person from the person when I was an active racer.
While I want to make my company's name known, I have no need to raise my personal profile.
To be honest, I have no desire to be famous anymore, and I don't want to show my face to the world.
I've been thinking about closing my website for years, so this was just the right thing to do.
"This is a good start," I thought to myself, and I relief. I don't need to worry about whether or not to close the website anymore.
"I can live more freely now!"
But the next morning, Suddenly a 180-degree different mindset from yesterday popped into my head.
"What if the Ukrainian students think I'm a weirdo, or a shady Japanese company that approaches them with the word "free" and trying to fishing and ends up plotting something?"
"What if the students don't trust me in some way or another, or what if they feel insecure about learning French?"
The root of my thinking was the news that "Scams to defraud Ukrainians are increasing and becoming a worldwide problem".
I also started to see the news that this is a daily problem. When I saw that, I was honestly shocked.
In such a difficult time with those news, we have to eliminate the possibility that some of our students may have some concerns, even if it is just in the unlikely event that they are concerned.
Yes, I must make the Ukrainian people trust me! And the conclusion I came to was...
Should I make my homepage in Ukrainian ?
This was my thought.
Of course, before I could make a Ukrainian site, I had to make a Japanese site, and I couldn't ask for translations. So I decided to make it in Japanese first. Luckily, I found some old documents, so I copied and pasted them and arranged.
Based on that, I was asked to translate it into Ukrainian.
As a side note, when I finished it, I thought ...... "I am not only a weird person, but in a way, I am a very dangerous person!" and I am a speed freak too... lol.
I am very exciting if this website will be accepted by Ukrainian people.