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Post by makiwaraman on Oct 19, 2011 22:54:19 GMT
steve, I also think you mean Uchi Deshi, not Uchi Desu.
the meaning is quite differant.
;-)
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Post by fujicolt on Oct 19, 2011 23:40:54 GMT
why oh why are we struggling with this - Karate has been outside of Japan longer than it was exclusively in - why cant we simply say it in english or spanish or whatever! good grief we are not children blindly following - or are we?
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Post by makiwaraman on Oct 20, 2011 0:25:48 GMT
I think the main reasons karate terminology is referred to in Japanese is for a few reasons, firstly, it makes it universal, and easier for japanese non native speaking instructors to teach foreigners. Secondly, especially with shotokan, although it's routes are okinawan, it is primarily a japanese martial art, with many of the names of kata and techniques changed by funakoshi sensei when he came to Tokyo to make them more understandable and relevant to japanese as although the languages have similarities, these are like welsh and english, after all why would Japanese want to speak Okinawan?! irony?!
I think it's important not to get caught up in the Japanese, and just use it as a label, as 99% of Karateka in the uk pronounce "uke" Ukey" like "AGI UKEY" and so on instead of "ukeh" (please excuse my phonetics).
hope this helps,
Maki
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Post by kensei on Oct 20, 2011 15:16:18 GMT
Okay, first off to reply to Steve....I am going to opt to teach my Karate classes in Norweigen...once I learn how to speak it and how to spell it! To reply to Maki(waraman) I am going to say that this is a interesting concept. As I have a small amount of Jewish blood in me...my Grand mother told me a story about the Jews that really made me understand them a bit more. one of the reasons that the Jewish people have such a reputation as being good business people has to do with their language. They would settle in places like Spain and england and if a Spanish business person wanted to trade into England they would approach a "go between" person who was Jewish. They would lay out their business ideas and then the Jewish person would find a Jew in England and speak Hebrew (or Yidish) to them and that Jew would find a English business person to deal with and sell the spanish goods to the English business. Great set up! So, if I were to go to Spain and teach Karate, I could use the little Japanese I know and basically teach a class to the Spanish people even though I speak little Japanese, they speak little Japanese..and no English..and All I can do is order a beer and ask for the biffy in Spanish! cool concept...but I am sticking with my learning Norweigen and teaching just in Norway! Oh, and for the record, the little bit of Welsh I know and the little bit I have been exposed to Looks NOTHING like English!
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