akiy

I personally do not use the "pluralized" form of (most) Japanese words when using them in an English language context. Similarly, I put words like "sensei" and "shihan" after the person's name. (As an aside, one dojomate who spent years in Japan noted that I'm one of the few people who pronounce the word "dojo" correctly, even when I'm speaking in English.) I use the term "dogi" or "keikogi" rather than "gi." And so on.

I don't think there is any sort of set rule when/why I retain certain Japanese linguistic constructs in the English language. For example, even though we use "last name, first name" when naming someone in Japanese, I don't use that when naming people in English, even if the person referred to is Japanese.

I guess it comes down to, as Peter put it above, how "jarring" certain contructs sound to my Japanese ears. When I hear someone say "dojos," "kenshuseis" and such, it just doesn't sound right to me -- just as "sensei Jones" and "shihan Smith" sounds extremely wrong to my ears as well.

Personally, I don't think it's out of the ordinary in the English language to "borrow" such rules as "don't add an -s to Japanese language nouns to pluralize," as there are many instances of such within the language itself (eg criterion to criteria, radius to radii). Even in the Japanese language, there are situations wherein such rules as "put the salutation/title after a person's name" gets overridden (eg "Mister" in front of the name (Mr Donut) rather than after). Heck, I doubt anyone would say "san Smith" rather than "Smith san," even in English...

Just my experience and my thoughts.

-- Jun