Why do a lot of martial arts classes bother saying a few words in a different...

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Pigonastackofmoney

New member
...language? Say you do judo. Why would you bother saying commence in japanese (hazjumay or something like that), stop (yamay), etc.? It seems silly to say a few words in Japanese. If you're not going to teach the whole class in the language, why bother for a few words? Tradition? Do you think the creator would care if you translate the techniques into English if you're explaining how to do it in English?

I'm not a troll. Sorry if this comes across as rude it just bugs me a bit
 
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Lex

Member
Because English speakers are not the only ones who do martial arts. Duh. When you have something practiced world wide, you have to have some sort of agreement on a uniform language. Medicine does the same thing. Medication, especially controlled substances, carry the same name no matter where you go in the world. When I went to the dentist office in Germany, I could tell the dentist right away that I was allergic to lydocain, which is a common pain killer for dental work. It didn't take any special effort or translator to tell that. All I had to do was write it on a piece of paper, and they understood immediately what that was.

Martial arts is the same way. I've had instructors from Okinawa who spoke very little English. But because most schools just use the Japanese terms, it was easy to understand when to bow, and when to get ready for forms so as not to look foolish. Did I understand everything? No. But I understood what technique he asked for.

Also you may not realize this, but forgien languages are NOT english in code. A lot of the Japanese terms simply DO NOT translate. We can't translate them because there's no word for some of those things.
 
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Lex

Member
Because English speakers are not the only ones who do martial arts. Duh. When you have something practiced world wide, you have to have some sort of agreement on a uniform language. Medicine does the same thing. Medication, especially controlled substances, carry the same name no matter where you go in the world. When I went to the dentist office in Germany, I could tell the dentist right away that I was allergic to lydocain, which is a common pain killer for dental work. It didn't take any special effort or translator to tell that. All I had to do was write it on a piece of paper, and they understood immediately what that was.

Martial arts is the same way. I've had instructors from Okinawa who spoke very little English. But because most schools just use the Japanese terms, it was easy to understand when to bow, and when to get ready for forms so as not to look foolish. Did I understand everything? No. But I understood what technique he asked for.

Also you may not realize this, but forgien languages are NOT english in code. A lot of the Japanese terms simply DO NOT translate. We can't translate them because there's no word for some of those things.
 
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Lex

Member
Because English speakers are not the only ones who do martial arts. Duh. When you have something practiced world wide, you have to have some sort of agreement on a uniform language. Medicine does the same thing. Medication, especially controlled substances, carry the same name no matter where you go in the world. When I went to the dentist office in Germany, I could tell the dentist right away that I was allergic to lydocain, which is a common pain killer for dental work. It didn't take any special effort or translator to tell that. All I had to do was write it on a piece of paper, and they understood immediately what that was.

Martial arts is the same way. I've had instructors from Okinawa who spoke very little English. But because most schools just use the Japanese terms, it was easy to understand when to bow, and when to get ready for forms so as not to look foolish. Did I understand everything? No. But I understood what technique he asked for.

Also you may not realize this, but forgien languages are NOT english in code. A lot of the Japanese terms simply DO NOT translate. We can't translate them because there's no word for some of those things.
 
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Swordsgirl268

New member
That's because most of the Judo terms are Japanese, and if you know Japanese you can figure out what they mean. It's very helpful. I have a friend who does Judo, and she can speak a few words in Japanese. Learning new languages is a very valuable life skill.

Hey, at the least, let's say you're fighting against somebody who doesn't know Japanese. The words will totally confuse them! ;)
 
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