The British Judo Council

Questionnaire from Paul Proud - should techniques be taught in Japanese and English?

Questionnaire from Paul Proud - Should techniques be taught in Japanese and English?

Judo as you know is a sport derived from jujitsu by Professor Jigaro Kano in 1882. So as a Japanese sport should we only teach the techniques without the English translations? This does not include the terminology such as Hajime and Matte etc, as these are important to contest and safety.

Do you the teacher / student find it easier when teaching / learning with the English? Whatever your grade, senior Dan grade to beginner Kyu grade, I would like to know what you think.

Many people believe that the English helps especially the children learn the techniques, however, the higher the grade they go for I personally think that they shouldn’t require the English translation.

One argument I have came across is why should we teach the Japanese anyway as we live in England? Another was we should only teach the Japanese as that’s where it comes from.

Another argument is that this country is England so why not teach the English to the technique? But when you go to places like France and Germany they would not understand if you asked “can you show me Major Hip Throw / Technique”, but they would understand ‘O-Goshi’.

Again I would like to emphasise that I agree with the terminology for things like what does matte mean, as this is a safety issue, but I would like to hear from you weather you are a teacher, student, parent, president or HQ committee member. Also I will post the total findings when possible. Thanks Paul Proud, IIHT, IIST

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