Students of a local Kenpo Karate dojo frequently call out "ESAH!" when fellow students perform exceptionally well in class. The Sensei has said that this word means "energy" or "power" in Japanese, and is used to cheer on students when they're giving it their best effort.
For the life of me I cannot find where this romanized word stems from. I've tried a number of translations of energy or power or performance, but none sound like Esah.
And in Japanese, shouldn't it be spelled more like "Isa" anyway? E is typically a short "eh" sound and not a long "eeee" sound, and they definitely make it a long e sound in karate class.
Do any japanese speakers out there have any insight?
Is this one of those strange karate words like "Osu", which is a combination of other words (oshi shinobu, onegai shimasu, or ohayo gozaimasu, depending upon your opinion).
Thanks.
For the life of me I cannot find where this romanized word stems from. I've tried a number of translations of energy or power or performance, but none sound like Esah.
And in Japanese, shouldn't it be spelled more like "Isa" anyway? E is typically a short "eh" sound and not a long "eeee" sound, and they definitely make it a long e sound in karate class.
Do any japanese speakers out there have any insight?
Is this one of those strange karate words like "Osu", which is a combination of other words (oshi shinobu, onegai shimasu, or ohayo gozaimasu, depending upon your opinion).
Thanks.