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Old 11-21-2011, 01:18 PM   #52
ChrisMoses
Dojo: TNBBC (Icho Ryu Aiki Budo), Shinto Ryu IaiBattojutsu
Location: Seattle, WA
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: A Primer on Aikido, Aiki and IS

Quote:
Katherine Derbyshire wrote: View Post
Japan has an advanced, technology-driven economy. There's nothing inherently vague about the language: it can be as precise as any Western language when the situation calls for it.

OTOH, the difference between technical Japanese and literary Japanese is quite dramatic. I'm only a very beginning student of the language, but I find technical Japanese much easier to read. The vocabulary is harder, but it largely dispenses with the grammatical constructs that give literary Japanese its layers.

Was your audience composed of people based in California, or in Japan? My Japanese friends here in the US seem to appreciate American directness.

Katherine
They were all based out of Japan and had flown over for the presentation.

While I agree that it is possible for Japanese to be just as detailed as other languages, I find it interesting that as you begin to get more and more detailed about IS concepts, everyone I've dealt with begins to leverage Chinese terms. "Hara" and "koshi" are rather ambiguous terms that can describe a fairly large area of the body and don't contain the detail that you need to really discuss what's happening in the body. What is the Japanese term for "kua" for example? The "one point" as Tohei described it is often associated with the dantien, but I don't think this is a good 1:1 association.

Chris Moses
TNBBC, "Putting the ME in MEdiocre!"
Budo Tanren at Seattle School of Aikido
Shinto Ryu Iai-Battojutsu
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