undefined | Better HN

0 pointslotyrin9y ago0 comments

I know this is off topic, but I wonder why we use Japanese like this. jugyo = lesson, kenkyu = research. If we absolutely must make it into a proper noun, some kind of brand to sell, how about just "Lesson Research" instead of Jugyokenkyu? But really, it seems it would be better to just say it plain: "Japan's educators research their lesson plans through a process where..." "Without performing research around their lesson plans, it was no wonder the American teachers..."

0 comments

2 comments · 1 top-level

teh_klev9y ago· 1 in thread

In the same way we don't say "signboard" or "billboard" but say "Kanban"? Or for the same reason we say "jujitsu" but not "gentle, soft, supple, flexible, pliable, or yielding art or technique".(see also Judo: "gentle way").

I'll take a stab at this though. The use of "jugyokenkyu" most likely expresses not just a "lesson plan", but also a philosophy and system that a literal translation to "lesson plan" can't express.

lotyrinOP9y ago

Definitely. But if the Japanese usage is as a proper noun, you can translate it and still use it as such. We do this with native words all the time - lower-case agile vs capital Agile, for instance. The question isn't whether or not we should proper-noun-ify things as much as whether or not we are served by doing so with a foreign word -- the meaning of which isn't immediately clear to an uninitiated audience.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse