In an earlier blog entry I explained the meaning of gedan (下段, げだん, ge-da-n) as "low(est) level". The other two levels we use in GKR are chūdan (中段, ちゅうだん, chu-u-da-n) and jōdan (上段, じょうだん, jo-u-da-n). These literally mean middle level and upper level although we mostly use the terms stomach level and head level which is how these levels relate to the human body. Similarly we use groin level for gedan.
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Or do I outside spectacles?
In an earlier
blog entry, Gay Dan, oo Kay!, I posed the question, which part of "uchi
uke" and "soto uke" do you think means "hooking"? Read the full article here.....
Is kōkutsu dachi driving you around the lean? Or should that be the bend?
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In translating from Japanese to English and vice versa, as with translating between any two languages, it is important to get the balance right between literal meaning and what sounds natural in the target language. When individual words are take without any context or in a very broad context it is difficult to know what is natural.
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I haven't bought a copy of the GKR Shimbun for about three years but decided to buy the latest edition to read the kata (形 or 型, かた, ka-ta) bunkai (分解, ぶんかい, bu-n-ka-i), or kata analysis, article. Flicking through the pages I came across an article on Advanced Terminology (page 41) with a pronunciation guide and was reminded of one of the reasons I stopped buying the Shimbun.
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People called Romans they go the house.
In the above scene from Monty Python's Life of Brian the hero, Brian, is discovered painting graffiti on a wall by a Roman soldier. Brian's attempt to translate "Romans go home" into Latin is a dismal failure and the Roman soldier proceeds to give Brian a lesson in Latin grammar and verb conjugation. Two orders, or commands, that you regularly hear in the dojo are......
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Subway are currently running TV commercials for their "wagoo" sub. That's "wa" as in "wag" and "goo" as in yucky stuff. Doesn't sound very appetising.
The text in the commercial shows that the sub actually contains "wagyu" (和牛, わぎゅう, wa-gyu-u), literally Japanese style cow, which is a very flavoursome and expensive type of beef. Subway have paid what I imagine is not an inconsiderable amount of money to an advertising agency to produce a commercial in which the person doing the voice over doesn't pronounce the name of their premium ingredient anywhere near correctly.
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Who makes the better motorbikes, Riverspit or Mountainleaf? How about Belltree and Ricepaddy? The latter two make both motorbikes and cars. They may even use Seaside tyres.
No idea who I am talking about? Mountainleaf (山葉), Belltree (鈴木) and Ricepaddy (本田) are all well known Japanese companies named after their founders. Riverspit (川崎) and Seaside (横浜) are both well known Japanese companies named after the cities in which they were founded. Riverspit and Seaside are quite close together just south of East Capital (東京).
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Well it's spelt Raymond Luxury-Yacht, but it's pronounced "Throatwobbler Mangrove". (see the Monty Python sketch here)
There are two ways to represent a non-Japanese name in kanji, phonetically (ateji) or by meaning. Neither will make it clear to a Japanese audience what your name is. In the first case it will only make any sense at all if they have heard your name spoken and in the second case it will probably totally bewilder them. My American business associate, Fawning Orchid, had his name converted to kanji for his business cards using the first method.
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Hi, may name's Deibiddo.
Well that is how my name appears on my Japanese business cards.
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Or is that mock Sue? Either way neither is Japanese.
You will hear "mock sue" or something similar at the start of most GKR bow ins. It will also sometimes be followed by the English words "eyes closed", especially if there are white belts present who may not be familiar with the bow in process.
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One of the problems with the romanisation of Japanese that leads to incorrect pronunciation is the loss of long vowels. The most commonly used system of romanisation in the west is the Hepburn system (mostly traditional and revised Hepburn) in which the long vowel forms of "o" and "u" are indicated by a macron, ie "ō" and "ū". When transcribing romanised Japanese words these macrons are usually dropped and the distinction between long vowels and short vowels are lost. With the loss of any distinction between long and short vowels most English speakers tend to pronounce most occurrences of "o" as the long form and all occurrences of "u" as the short form.
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Do the Dutch stand? They may well do but "dutch" is not Japanese for stand or stance.
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Or should that be geh-dan oo-kay?
Actually it is neither.
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.... and I keep my rook in a hutch.
Despite what the official GKR Japanese Terminology sheet pronunciation shows "itch", "sun", "rook" and "hutch" are not Japanese numbers. Neither is "sitch".
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Gemstone.
That is what the kanji in the banner on the Official GKR website translates to.
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Auto garni Ray?
"Autogani" (sic) seems to be the most often mispronounced word I hear in GKR by virtue of the fact that it is said at every bow in and bow out. I hear a number of variations, some more bizarre than others, and given the romanisation and the pronunciation on the official GKR Japanese Terminology sheet I was given when I started GKR it is no surprise.
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In Japanese hay (sic) (hei - 塀) is something that horses are more likely to jump over than eat as it means "fence".
Last year I started training regularly at another dojo and I noticed that after the sensei explained something they would say "hey". It is common in parts of Australia for people to end sentences in "hey" or "ay" and at first I thought that this was what was happening here. I then started to take notice of what other sensei and students actually said, not what I expected to hear, and found that most say "hey" when they mean "hai" (pronounced similar to the English "hi" or "high").
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