Karate is general term

[FieldDiscipline]

It's like 'Kleenex' for tissues and 'Q-Tips' for cotton swabs and 'Kool-Aid' for sugar water... or 'Human' for my ex-wife.

Karate went from being a specific term describing a specific art to becoming a general term in the vernacular. Happens all the time.

:rofl:

While a lot of people have watched Kung Fu movies and "The Karate Kid" series, the same can NOT be said about movies encompassing other styles, such as the first "Best of the Best," where Tae Kwon Do was emphasized, or "Only the Strong," where Capoeira was featured. Sorry, but those movies only grabbed a small niche crowd, although it was nice to see movies featuring such systems.

And even there they call it the US National Karate Team!

Kacey, if it makes you feel any better my father calls it kung fu or karate despite knowing exactly what it is. This however, is done to annoy me!

 

[MBuzzy]

I have some semblance of an explanation at least for my particular Korean Martial art...

The Chinese characters for Karate, when translated into Korean were pronounced Tang Soo Do. Now, we also use the same characters for Soo Bahk Do. The Hangul are completely different and I recognize that both TSD and SBD use the same Chinese characters, but I don't read chinese and am not able to translate it into Korean, so I don't know if this is true or a popular KMA myth.

What I do know is that Tang Soo Do is a generic term for our art, just as Karate can be used as a generic term.

It will probably change over the next few years again, but it is always good when people are interested in Martial Arts no matter what generic term they choose to use. Once they get into a school, they'll know the difference.

 

[Kacey]

Kacey, if it makes you feel any better my father calls it kung fu or karate despite knowing exactly what it is. This however, is done to annoy me!

My mother still calls TKD Karate - even after 20 years - because she can't be bothered to use the correct term.

 

[MBuzzy]

For what its worth, my KOREAN instructor called Tang Soo Do "Korean Karate"

 

[chinto]

For what its worth, my KOREAN instructor called Tang Soo Do "Korean Karate"

I was once told that tang soo do has a very large influince from shotokan karate. shotokan karate was derived and modified from shuri te as tought by Anku Itosu .. and later known basicly as Kobayashi shorin ryu.... if this is true then "Korean Karate would be to a point accurate as it has a large Okinawan influince and basis with in it.... at least to a point... at least it would be more accurate then say to call kali karate.. as it has no Okinawan direct influince as far as I know....

but Ya I do understand how it would be anoying to have some one call your art by a diferent arts name. I would not really want what I study called say pankraitian or kung fu or silat or tang soo do.

 

[MBuzzy]

I was once told that tang soo do has a very large influince from shotokan karate. shotokan karate was derived and modified from shuri te as tought by Anku Itosu .. and later known basicly as Kobayashi shorin ryu.... if this is true then "Korean Karate would be to a point accurate as it has a large Okinawan influince and basis with in it.... at least to a point... at least it would be more accurate then say to call kali karate.. as it has no Okinawan direct influince as far as I know....

but Ya I do understand how it would be anoying to have some one call your art by a diferent arts name. I would not really want what I study called say pankraitian or kung fu or silat or tang soo do.

Exactly, TSD and SBD draw very heavily from Shotokan and Japanese styles. There is also a Chinese influence in SBD.

Although there are definately some people in both styles that will strongly DENY that there is any Japanese or Chinese influence...others who are trying to eliminate it - but that's a discussion we've had many times in other threads!!

 

[chinto]

Yep, and there is a chinese influince on Okinawan Karate... as well as perhaps some japanese.. on Okinawan Karate. But Karate by definition is what the Okinawans made of what they saw and were inflinced by and their own native arts combined that became the Original KARATE.. This of course does not diminsish what others have made with Okinawan and other influinces as far as I am concerned. but I would say if it has a large Okinawan infuince in a martial art it Might be called a Karate... as well as some other name. .... but personaly I would call it by its native and " original/native name" in general.. for instance Tang Soo Do.. or Shotokan...