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Old 06-15-2011, 05:56 AM   #5
Hanna B
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 647
Sweden
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Re: -"masu" or -"mashita"?

Quote:
Peter A Goldsbury wrote: View Post
I have never heard aikido students utter arigatou gozaimasu before they start practising. It is invariably, onegai-shimasu.
I was puzzled by the phrase "after pairing up", too. Perhaps David actually means "after finishing training with someone"?

Quote:
David Santana wrote: View Post
thanks, Carina. the link confirms what my japanese teacher told me. but since I'm not training with him anymore (I moved to another province), I guess I'll have to use the one that's deemed correct by my current instructor?
I can feel your pain!

You could point your aikido teacher to the post by Mr Goldsbury above, and tell him Mr G is not only teaching in Japanese dojos, he's also the president of the International Aikido Federation. But since your teacher already has dismissed opinions from someone who teaches the Japanese language, I guess it mainly comes down to him wanting to do it the way his teacher did. And then the whole issue gets kind of sticky. Telling him he's wrong means telling him his teacher was wrong. He might not want to listen to that. He should, or course. But it might take him some time to digest!

If your teacher actually found support in three aikido dictionaries, he probably misread or misinterpreted them in some way. You could ask to see those aikido dictionaries. But then it might be seen as - and feel - impertinent.

I don't have much suggestions for you, really.

My current teacher - in budo but not in aikido - mispronounces the name of one of his Japanese budo teachers. The Americans pronouce the name wrongly, and he imitates them. Lots of people in my country do, apparently. One day I'll tell him, but I'll wait for a suitable moment. And I won't expect him to believe me... but I'll add "ask anyone who speaks Japanese, or listen to the Japanese when they are mentioning his name". After that it is up to him. I won't try to change him, but I won't copy his mispronounciation either... I won't. If someone would ask that of me, I'd suffer.

Possibly you could quietly use the wordings you have been told are correct without making much fuss about it. But since the issue has been brought up, it might be seen as bad manners not wanting to accept the ways of your new dojo.

Perhaps I should choose not to be impertinent to my teacher either. After all, it seems the Japanese teacher in question does not mind. He probably does not pronounce my teacher's name correctly, either

Last edited by Hanna B : 06-15-2011 at 06:10 AM. Reason: minor fixes
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