Should we still teach Japanese in the dojo?

**Devil** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 1:36pm

Originally Posted by W. Rabbit

Is that like the chapter of the US Army skinning Native American Iroquois children?

Really, you want that derail? Japanese language and culture aren't sexy because they have skeletons in the closet?

Everybody know Iroquois taste better when you take the skin off. Like catfish.

I'm not derailing the thread at all. If we don't study all the history then we'll lose sight of the honor and disciprine and be lesser martial artists.

**Permalost** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 1:43pm

A language can frame the pedagogy of an art.

**W. Rabbit** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 1:59pm

Quick, what's the Japanese for "knocked up"?

**Eddie Hardon** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 4:01pm

Originally Posted by PointyShinyBurn

The resemblance of the sounds made in UK Gendai "Ju Jitsu" to the Japanese language is extremely limited.

The bulk of the non-Judo 'Japanese' of the Jitsu Foundation, which is the largest single organisation in the BJJAGB, isn't historical passing-down but English terms badly translated in recent years to sound more martial artsy.

Why worry? Those Liverpool guys could fight.

**Eddie Hardon** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 4:10pm

I'm happy learning Trad JJ in English. I've never been to Japan-Okinawa, well not yet but my thinking has been that if I were lost in Downtown Tokyo, I would be better off knowing enough Japanese to ask for directions, Hotel, Bus, Food etc. Knowing a Shoulder Throw, Left Side, Right Side, would hardly allow that.

The merit in learning the terminology in Japanese would allow someone to travel between different Countries with a common frame of reference. That said, if I understand things correctly, the Japanese no longer "own" Judo. English is now widely spoken around the world (Thank God) so an English-speaker is able to get around more easily than prior to, say, WWII.

Gunji Koizumi spoke English, as did Kano, who apparently wrote his ideas in English (making it difficult for Japanese to understand his thinking?).

To learn the language, one should also to understand the culture, otherwise context is lost. That all said, one of my friends Judo/Trad JJ Black Belt does speak Japanese and two more of my Trad JJ friends currently learning it.

**Permalost** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 4:23pm

Seems like people like to use their local tongue are trying to avoid being tedious, but it sometimes seems more tedious to come up with comparable word phrases for words like "kuzushi" and "maai". Can they be pared down to a smaller number of syllables in English? Probably not.

**Devil** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 4:30pm

Bullshido - home to the largest group of rising sun tattoo owners east of Martial Arts Planet.

**Styygens** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 4:57pm

You know... it really pisses me off that my daughter is learning all that French in ballet class!

Why can't they speak like good 'muricans?

**Res Judicata** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 6:02pm

Originally Posted by W. Rabbit

Quick, what's the Japanese for "knocked up"?

"Haramu" means to become pregnant.

I'm a big proponent of the use of Japanese, at least in Judo. It standardizes things and gives everyone a common vocabulary. I hate the use of bastardized Japanese, though.

**Permalost** · Posted On: 12/03/2012 6:15pm

Originally Posted by Styygens

You know... it really pisses me off that my daughter is learning all that French in ballet class!

Why can't they speak like good 'muricans?

Yeah, why can't they stop calling it "fouette" and just simply call it "outward turning single leg extension with 360 degree body turn as foot pulls underneath"!?!?