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Old 10-11-2001, 02:24 AM   #76
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Dojo: Vestfyn Aikikai Denmark
Location: Vissenbjerg
Join Date: Jul 2000
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Quote:
...axe hack first technique...

..shomenuchi ikkyo...
This is a good example of the risk of a misleading translation from japanese into english. As far as I know (and my sensei has been VERY explicit about this to me several times) a shomenuchi should NEVER be performed like an axe hack....... So I guess translating the names of the techniques can have it's shortcommings .

As representative of a fairly small language area I just want once again to point out that people from the US (and to some extend from Britain and Australia) often seem to be very reluctant in allowing other languages to play a part in anything. For example the excellent french movie 'Nikita' was refilmed in the US with actors of less quality (my opinion!!) as 'Codename Nina' and I think that's a serious waste of resources just because the broad audience in the US don't want to read subtitles.

My point is that the enlish speaking Aikido societies might benefit from changing the japanese terms of Aikido into english terms, but to the rest of the world that's not neccesarily the best solution. I don't think every technique should be named in each and every language since that will undoubtly leed to differences in translation and ruin the beautiful oppertunity of people from all arond the world communicating about Aikido across borders.

Let's all accept the fact that Aikido techniques are originally named in japanese and make the effort to learn them. If you like it - that's just great and if you don't then it's a good excercise in discipline.

Just my opinion

- Jørgen Jakob Friis

Inspiration - Aspiration - Perspiration
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