How should we spell the Japanese terms that we use and how should we pronounce them?
More importantly does it matter?
This is from a web site that my sensei has for the doujou (yep that’s the way I spell it) :
“The common way of spelling terms such as "dojo" and "ryu" that is commonly used is not a recognized standard form of Romanization for the Japanese language. The scholastic standard spellings in Roomaji and Hepburn systems for these two Japanese terms is "doojoo" or "doujou" and "ryuu." When two o's are put together, each sound is pronounced as two "o's" which in effect means it is extended and is not one short "o" sound. The same is true of "ryuu" as opposed to "ryu." The spelling "dou" is pronounced just like it is seen: "do" (doh) and "u" and when spoken quickly sounds like a drawn-out "o" like "oh" in English.”
( http://www.okinawa-budou.org/PGNR/language.html )
I tend to conform these rules of spelling and pronunciation when I can and have received strange looks from people (then again I get strange looks no mater what I do). My feeling is that if you study another language and culture you should be able to pronounce it properly. I myself work in an ethnic community and must be able to speak Portuguese, Brazilian and Spanish. Although these languages are similar pronunciations are different and in one case the term for “little girl” in one language is a profanity in the other. I understand that for the most part we learn from American instructors and teach American students, so the pronunciation gets lost.
I’d like to get some feed back on this and see people stand in both the traditional schools as well as the modern schools.
Thanks in advance for your participation.