The speech

A few people (at least two) asked if I post the speech I held last Saturday at a friend’s wedding in Tokyo. Not that I am famous for speeches, but I told everybody I met in the last two weeks (at least three people, what makes two a sweeping majority) that I am going to deliver a speech in Japanese at a Japanese wedding. Sorry, folks. There is neither a script (which most of you wouldn’t understand anyway, although the Google translate for Japanese has become quite good) nor a record of me delivering the speech. Furthermore, I compromised insofar a little with the language as there were friends who couldn’t speak Japanese. The speech’s language was more of a Jenglish (and not of a proper 日本語). Reflecting on my own speech led me to the question: what is actually a good speech? Should I have taken the context of East/West into consideration as I was finally reading From the Ruins of Empire by Pankaj Mishra on my flight to Japan? I don’t think so. The book has been rather a disappointment so far, maybe my expectations were too high because of Georg Diez’ posts about Pankaj? When I am reading books I’am always underlining some interesting information, some nice sentences, anything I like. Not much to underline so far in Pankaj’s book. Maybe it’s unfair because I know the history of Japan quite a little or maybe it was the same effect Florian Illies’ book 1913 had on me which was a very pleasant read but not much stuck. But maybe that’s not the point, as long as some stories stay. And maybe I will judge From the Ruins of Empire differently when I will have finished it what I intend to do. Back to the question what is a good speech? I have no idea. I guess it is about creating a shared feeling of something. Of a common past, a common future? Therefore I claim: 60pages is a brilliant speech so far.