Question to everyone!

[tko4u]

You dont have to own a school to answer, you can be an instructor or a student.

Okay, when new people walk in to your TAEKWONDO school, or talk to you about it at work/school, how many of them call it karate?

Second question, do you correct them? If so, how?

Last, How many of them still call it karate afterwards?


1. I would say 7 of 10.

2. Yes, Explaining our lineage and where the two styles differ.

3. About 1 in 10.

 

[Windsinger]

Actually, I can't say I've ever had someone call it karate. However, if they did, I would correct them immediately.

 

[tko4u]

Really? There are a ton of people who talk to me and almost everytime they say I always wanted to try this karate stuff, I most of the time have to grit my teeth and do some explaining.

 

[terryl965]

It is used here all the time and when they do it I correct them and explain the difference. I believe in being truthful at all cost.

 

[TKDHermit]

Nah no one calls it karate. In Singapore, Taekwondo overrides Karate in terms of popularity. Kudos to the market development team, although I haven't seen any advertisements or anything about Taekwondo, but somehow people here know Taekwondo as Taekwondo.

 

[granfire]

Guess if the sign reads 'Karate'

It's a losing battle here...parents call it 'Karadee' even though the school is called Taekwondo Plus....

I about fainted when this lady came in and asked if we indeed did karate or Taekwondo. She wanted Karate....

 

[KickFest]

Nope never had anyone call it karate. People generally know to call it taekwondo in my part of the world, even if they don't always know what taekwondo is exactly

 

[Cirdan]

Never heard TKD called Karate either, not here in Norway at least.

 

[karatemom]

The sign at our school says "Taekwondo Plus Karate Academy" but we actually do TKD - my kids are the one who gave me the nickname "karatemom". I usually tell people I do martial arts then when they ask what kind I say TKD.

 

[Blindside]

So lets see:

A) Walk around in white pajamas....

B) Ranks are differentiated by different colored belts, with black being the highest.

C) Move up and down the floor in patterns punching and kicking the air....

D) Yell for some unexplained reason at the end of a set or at some point on the pattern.

E) May or may not have a generally white flag with a single red dot or a combination red/blue dot with little black marks around it.

F) Have generally unreadable asian signs on signs, on windows, or on posters.

Yup, I have no idea how anyone not versed in the martial arts could mix up the two....

Lamont

 

[Deaf Smith]

Tell you the truth, most don't call it karate. They really don't know the differece between Shotokan and Taekwondo or Jujitsu and Judo or Soo Bahk Do and Kungfu. They just ask me what kind of martial art I study.

I'll mention that there are many martial arts styles and systems, each with their own good points and each with their own bad ones. And unless they won't their ear talked off, I'll forget mentioning all the rivalries inside each art (like Gojo-Ryu/Shorin-Ryu/Ishin-Ryu, or all the Kwans in Taekwondo, or Shotokan with JKA/SKI, or...)

I will tell them about hard styles .vs. soft styles and things like that. I'll also mention some of it is art, some of it is self defense and not to confuse the two.

Deaf

 

[YoungMan]

I'm offended when people call what I do karate. I have better taste than that

Seriously, If someone calls Taekwondo karate, I correct them. Karate is a Japanese martial art. I practice a Korean style. If they want to know the differences, I tell them.

 

[Tryak]

I've never seen anyone here call it karate. I know not everyone is familiar with what style of martial arts we teach but most ask rather than assume and default to "martial arts" as a term rather than karate.

 

[mango.man]

Hmmm, why would anyone call it Karate?

 

[terryl965]

Hmmm, why would anyone call it Karate?

A pics says a thousand words, that just a wonderful siye and people get confused how?

 

[tshadowchaser]

The general public dose not know the difference. When they ask about Karate they usually mean any martial art. They are not being disrespectful of TKD.
So why take the time to explain that you study a form of martial art that is from a different country it means nothing to the general public. Why not just go along with the discussion and then invite them over to watch your class

 

[BrandonLucas]

You dont have to own a school to answer, you can be an instructor or a student.

Okay, when new people walk in to your TAEKWONDO school, or talk to you about it at work/school, how many of them call it karate?

Second question, do you correct them? If so, how?

Last, How many of them still call it karate afterwards?


1. I would say 7 of 10.

2. Yes, Explaining our lineage and where the two styles differ.

3. About 1 in 10.

1. At our dojang, everyone is encouraged to call it Tae Kwon Do...but the problem lies, for our dojang at least, with the parents...they have all been programmed to call it Karate, so the kids (especially the young ones) end up calling it Karate...so I would put the odds at roughly the same, at 7 of 10.

2. I absolutely correct anyone who calls Tae Kwon Do Karate, including the parents, and explain to them the lineage and difference

3. Sadly, still about 4 out of 10

 

[shesulsa]

Tell you the truth, most don't call it karate. They really don't know the differece between Shotokan and Taekwondo or Jujitsu and Judo or Soo Bahk Do and Kungfu. They just ask me what kind of martial art I study.

I get that question, only "what kind of karate?"

The general public dose not know the difference. When they ask about Karate they usually mean any martial art. They are not being disrespectful of TKD.
So why take the time to explain that you study a form of martial art that is from a different country it means nothing to the general public. Why not just go along with the discussion and then invite them over to watch your class

Yeah, sometimes I get into the explanation and the eyes gloss over. They don't care, they just want their kid in karadee.

So to the questions:

1 I would say of the people I come across that more people call martial arts "karate" than any other possible option.

2. Occasionally I correct them by simply telling them the name of the style, the country it came from and that there are many kinds of martial arts including karate.

3. A few. I've been able to turn more people to using the generic term "martial arts."

 

[TKDHermit]

Karate is a Japanese martial art.

Karate is Okinawan.




Anyway I'll just say "Taekwondo is Korean, Karate is Okinawan. We are doing Taekwondo, not Karate." to whoever tells me I'm doing Karate. If someone comes up to me in class I'll just tell them to look at the back of everyone's dobok - "Singapore Taekwondo Federation" printed at the back at a large font, if they still refer it to Karate. Fortunately it doesn't happen here. -.-

One of my friends thought Taekwondo was Japanese, which I think is worse than calling Taekwondo Karate.

 

[YoungMan]

Karate is an Okinawan/Japanese martial art, if you want to get into semantics.