What The What?! (Language Guide)

If you are reading this, you are probably living on the planet earth (well, unless you are reading this in the year 2516 and we now have civilization living on the moon). And you aren’t the only person living on earth.

There are billions of people all living on the earth with us. And if we are all on the exact same giant rock as us, why can’t we all speak the same language? It would be a lot easier to speak to your friend in Japan if we all spoke a generic Earthese or something.

However, in retrospect, language carries the culture in itself. Having soooo many different languages adds more flavor to the world and to the world of Martial Arts. It can be difficult and frustrating to try and learn a new language however it is by far worth it!

If your art originated somewhere with a foreign language, study that language.

Even if your art is purely native, study the etymology of the words and ask why one word was chosen over another. Or why it wasn’t.

Studying the original language helps you color in your art.

Without further ado, I’ll help you get started with at least pronouncing and understanding some of the foreign words.

Japanese

The biggest thing you need to know to pronounce any Japanese word is how to pronounce just five letters, the vowels.

•A = “ah” (like the “a” in “father”)

•I = “ee” (like the “i” in “machine”)

•U = “oo” (like the “oo” in “boo”)

•E = “eh” (like the “e” in “get”)

•O = “oh” (like the “o” in “old”)

Knowing this, karate is then pronounced “kah-rah-teh”, not “ka-raa-tee” or “that Taekwondo stuff”.

The Japanese have three different ways of writing things out: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.

At first that may sound insane. I can hear some of you crying out “how many writing systems do you really need to write your thoughts out?!”

But here’s the thing: English isn’t too different in that aspect. We have script and we have cursive. And many a teenagers speak that little understood text slang. Lol 

Hiragana and Katakana are both phonetic systems, they spell out their meanings (like our alphabet).

Hiragana is usually taught first and is the simpler and smoother looking of the three writing systems.

Katakana looks sharper (like this:ン) and is usually used for foreign words or for emphasizing a word to make it appear more dynamic (like the sound effects in a comic book).

Kanji are Chinese character that have been adopted for their use in conveying ideas. They are ideographic, each character carries a meaning (for example, 目 or “me” means eye).

As this Cup of Kick is only an introduction to the language, we are only going to focus on Hiragana. Of course, that’s not to say Katakana and Kanji aren’t important as well however.

Here is a chart of all the hiragana characters (and thus, all of the sounds in the Japanese language):

If you want to refine your Japanese speaking skills, here is a good video on perfect pronunciation.

Chinese

Chinese is a language that has many layers of depth to it. For starters, just saying Chinese isn’t really the best way to talk about the language. If you are talking about the language spoken in China, you need to get specific. China is quite regional and has many different dialects. In Traditional Chinese Martial Arts (TCMA), Mandarin and Cantonese are most commonly used.

There are some things all of the dialects share however:

•They use the same written characters. So technically, everybody is “write” (get it? Right. Write. Oh, never mind). Even though people from two different places in China may pronounce a word a different way, they’ll still spell it the same. 目 is 目 no matter where you go.

•It is a tonal language. How you say it matters and can completely change the meaning of the word. We’ll talk about this more in a moment.

Spelling it in English is a whole ‘nother matter though. You see, written Chinese is ideographic, it writes out ideas rather than sounds. Because of that, there is more than one way to romanize a Chinese word.

The most common systems for romanizing it are Yale, Hanyu Pinyin, and Wade-Giles.

One system might spell a word with a “G” where another would use a “K”, one might use a hyphen in a word, another might use an apostrophe, another might use nothing and just leave the word plain, one might use a mark above a letter to signal what tone it should have, another might use a number, and another might just say “good luck” and let you figure out what tone to use on your own.

Now let’s talk about tones.

Tones are how you say the word. You know how your mom would give you a stern look and say “don’t you use that tone on me, mister!” if you talked back?

Well, just like how you had to be careful about how you spoke less you get a good ol’ spanking, you have to be mindful of how you say things in Chinese.

Mandarin Chinese has four different tones (plus a fifth non-tonal tone. How’s that for philosophical?).

•1st tone. Shown as a “1” beside the word (ma1) or a flat mark above a letter (mā). Is pronounced with a flat, even, and slightly higher voice.

•2nd tone. Shown as a “2” beside the word (ma2) or a rising mark above a letter (má). Is pronounced with a rising voice, kinda like you are asking a question.

•3rd tone. Shown as a “3” beside the word (ma3) or a falling-rising mark above a letter (mǎ). Is more distinct than the others and is pronounced by dipping your voice then rising. Something that helped me learn this tone was by replicating the sound a police car makes (wee-ooh, wee-ooh) while trying to sound deep. You’ll sound crazy insane, but it does help.

•4th tone. Shown as a “4” beside the word (ma4) or a downward mark above a letter (mà). Is pronounced with a downward steeping tone, like giving a command.

•There is another “tone” and that is the neutral tone. In most cases, no special mark or number denotes it (ma). It is said as if plainly speaking, giving no regard to any special tone.

Each of the tonal examples actually means something different:

•mā/ma1 = “mother”

•má/ma2 = “hemp”

•mǎ/ma3 = “horse”

•mà/ma4 = “scold”

•ma = a question particle (turns what you said into a question)

A common example to demonstrate how important it is to learn and master the tones is the phrase: “Mā ma mà mǎ de má ma” or “is mom scolding the horse’s hemp?”

These were just two quick introductions to two languages but I would highly recommend you to study the native language of whatever art you practice.

Are you a Karateka? Study Japanese.

Do you practice Systema? Learn Russian.

Trained in Krav Maga? Look to Hebrew.

If you practice Kali, study a Filipino language (like Cebuano or Tagalog).

Know your art—inside and out.

(Trust me, it’s a fun challenge!)