Only in a game if a weapon is called a Samurai sword will I get annoyed. Even then only if the weapon is supposed to be set in that time period. So say if Oblivion called Katanas samurai swords I would get annoyed then move on with my life.
Poll: How do you say "Ninja Star"
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The funny thing is, both the English language and the Japanese language readily adopt foreign loan words. Japanese has Chinese, Portuguese, German, and English floating around in it just like English has Latin, French, German, and Japanese.
One must always endeavour to employ the vernacular.Agayek said:
;P
On topic, gotta agree with Steve Fidler, not everyone knows the 'proper' terminology for specialised equipment, and in many cases it's more effective to distil something down to a more recognisable description [y'know, the whole logical progression from 'Katana' to 'Sword commonly used by Samurai' to 'Samurai Sword']. Frankly to get het up about that shit is essentially irritable pedantry with a nice smattering of elitism.
This coming from someone who used to spend a lot of time correcting people, a bad habit I've been steadily escaping for some time [although I'm still a bit of a nob, to be fair].
Why on Earth should such a thing bother you? The "proper" term for an ancient weapon from another country isn't exactly common knowledge. They're just using "best fits" from their available pool of knowledge. That doesn't make them "brain dead jocks." That's kind of an ass-ish thing to say. I'm sure they have knowledge of lots of things that you don't.WOPR said:
Would you expect a random Japanese person to know the proper name for a tricorne or a flintlock or... I dunno, some other kind of obscure Western old-world thing? Then there's no reason to expect your average American to be able to pull out "shuriken" or "katana" in casual conversation. Maybe if you asked them about it and gave them a minute to think they'd remember having heard those Japanese names somewhere, but like I said, it's not exactly common knowledge.
My knowledge of Japanese is rudimentary at best, so it took me a minute to figure out what the proper pronunciation for these words should be. It's difficult when you've been hearing them pronounced incorrectly your entire life. You'd just soften those hard E's, right? Like KAH-REH-OH-KEH, roughly?Fanta Grape said:
Yeah, that pretty much sums up my opinions on it. Not really bothered if some fellow in the streets doesn't know the terms or the pronunciations. Why should they know? Its not something they'll have put much research into or anything, I imagine they just learned from playing games and watching films.LawlessSquirrel said:
However, when a documentary does it, then I'm annoyed. Mainly because it shows lack of research, laziness or that they chose not to mention it because they are just pandering to idiots instead of trying to be educational. However this isn't exclusive to Asian weaponry... This includes anything. These are the people that should be as accurate as they can with what they are showing.
I was a little disappointed when I watched a documentary on T.V about dinosaurs and they were depicting them as they were in Jurassic Park. None of the feathered dino's had feathers and they did the whole T-Rex was blind jig. I wouldn't have been bothered if some fellow in the street thought that the T-Rex was blind and that all dino's were featherless, I don't expect them to know any different. However when a show comes a documentary comes on T.V with people claiming to be experts and they look like they learned everything from watching a Jurassic Park boxset then well... Its not on is it.
Why is it called 'samurai sword' when the katana is only one of a number of weapons samurai used?
I mean, they also used bows, spears, their goddamned fists, and etc.
Why don't they get the 'samurai' prefix? (Although 'samurai fists' sounds pretty badass)
Especially considering that katana were not exclusive to samurai in any way.
Even some peasants had them.
I mean, they also used bows, spears, their goddamned fists, and etc.
Why don't they get the 'samurai' prefix? (Although 'samurai fists' sounds pretty badass)
Especially considering that katana were not exclusive to samurai in any way.
Even some peasants had them.
Kind of., I have a thing about calling things there proper names, with as close to proper pronounciation as possible.
Like the Kusari-Gama. It's called a Kusari-gama, not a "Chain-sickle", though that is technically an accurate name for it.
Like the Kusari-Gama. It's called a Kusari-gama, not a "Chain-sickle", though that is technically an accurate name for it.
Not really, but I understand how you could get upset. I've used both in the past, I know what a kunai, shuriken, katana, and even a wakizashi is, along with a couple other weapons, but you get the point.
I change their names as much as I would a pike a spear, despite being two different things, which is even worse. Though I think pike and javelin is more forgivable.
So yeah, it's just anglicizing something, to make it more familiar. And you want to keep it closer to the original name, and culture that goes with it. I think both are understandable.
I change their names as much as I would a pike a spear, despite being two different things, which is even worse. Though I think pike and javelin is more forgivable.
So yeah, it's just anglicizing something, to make it more familiar. And you want to keep it closer to the original name, and culture that goes with it. I think both are understandable.
I call the star like thrown weapons Shuriken, I call the long pointy like thrown weapons Kunai, the normal length sword a katana, the short and often dual wielded/reverse gripped swords Kodachis and the completely impracticable excessively long sword a Nodachi.
Feel free to correct me.
Feel free to correct me.
i am not a fatmanganerdwhiner so i call them ninja star and that lame samuraiswords and don't care about it at all.
I call them shuriken because it's less awkward to say. But I don't see the problem with anybody calling them ninja stars. They're throwing weapons shaped like stars and they're used by ninjas.
Do you call longswords Langschwert and maces Morgenstern in regular conversation just because it's their name in the original language?
Or is it just becaue you're just one of those ultra-otakus who think the Japanese language is inheritly superior and use Japanese words even when they're completely unnescesarry?
Do you call longswords Langschwert and maces Morgenstern in regular conversation just because it's their name in the original language?
Or is it just becaue you're just one of those ultra-otakus who think the Japanese language is inheritly superior and use Japanese words even when they're completely unnescesarry?
Absolutely. The Japanese language has five vowels. ah, ee, oo, eh, oh. They're pronounced softly, but are quite acute. That is to say, the sounds don't linger like in English. Karaoke is broken up into ka-ra-o-keBrainWalker said:
I literally had the exact same experience a couple of weeks ago. Damn you uneducated masses!WOPR said:
I couldn't give a rats ass less about the real name, I know there are like 20 different types of "Samurai Sword," I still call them all Katanas, which is incorrect except in the case of ACTUAL Katanas. I call "Ninja Stars" "Throwing Stars" because that is what they are. Yes, in each case, there are many different types (Different types of swords that are shaped like katanas, and different styles of throwing stars, variations including the six sided, four sided, etc)but I just refer to them by the generic name.WOPR said:
Sue me.
I love Rapiers. I want to take a fencing class, but I don't know of a place around here that offers one.emeraldrafael said: