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General Ranting
-- General ranting is a quick method for bee/bonnet separation. To kick off, a rant concerning using Japanese terminology (applies only to non-japanese speakers.): Using Japanese terminology is in my opinion a bad habit. Why? Because it...
Spot the inconsistency? 'Go' is a japanese term. Sigh. -- Anonymous Charles See Japanese Go Terms Discussion. Barry: Using hane = bend is a good example of what you should not do. "hane" is a technical term, whereas "bend" is an English word with lots of variants of meaning. If you were going to use an english word, why not "wing"? This epitomises the problems of replacing Japanese words with English.
BobMcGuigan: While I personally have no trouble with the use of Japanese words in discussing go I certainly sympathize with Charles's rant above[1]. We use so many Japanese terms for a number of reasons. Go came to the West from Japan, and for many years our teachers were visiting Japanese professionals. As a result we adapted many Japanese terms. Use (sometimes misuse) of Japanese is also due to the numerous anime fans. Japanese terminology isn't necessary since we can use synonymous English terms. However, as has been pointed out in other places, sometimes the English substitutes miss important subtleties in meaning. As go becomes increasingly westernized it seems likely that more English (or other western language) words will be used. As things stand, some Japanese words will become a fixture in English go writing. For example, the famous proverb about death being in the hane will lose it's ring if it is written "There is death in the bend" Or maybe it should be "bend-around". As for the Korean and Chinese observers of play on the internet, they might well have as much trouble understanding some English substitutes for Japanese words as they do with the Japanese words themselves. There is a challenging task ahead for English go writers because English terms will be developed and promoted by usage. So I say keep trying. And don't get discouraged because the trend is definitely towards greater use of English. Just compare Basic Techniques of Go with more recent writing. Juha Nieminen: IMO there's one good thing about the Japanese terminology: It's a kind of international standard terminology. Not everyone is a native english speaker. Most non-english speakers learn go and its terminology in their own native language. Using the Japanese terminology for things that are difficult to translate (how do you translate terms like ko, aji, gote or semedori in a reasonable and sensible way?) is not only reasonable because trying to invent a translation which has the full original meaning and which is not overly complicated is difficult, but also when you read go literature in another language (eg. English) you will know the meaning of these Japanese terms without them having to be explained. However, if the English text avoids all Japanese terms at all costs and uses (sometimes awkward) translations, that not only makes the text cumbersome but also harder to read for someone who doesn't know what the English translations are talking about. Of course there are terms which are used usually in one's native language instead of using the Japanese term (eg. I don't know how terms like bulky five or eye are in Japanese). It's kind of inconsistent... Dieter Repeat: See Japanese Go Terms Discussion. Charles Oh, I'd better make clear quickly that the anonymous author of the initial unsigned rant isn't me - I was just responding. This is a copy of the living page "General Ranting" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |