Ignorance

[Simon R]

How do you deal with people that are chronically ignorant of anything and everything Oriental? People at my school ask me the most ridiculous, idiotic questions about when they see me practicing suburi in the gym. When retarded kids come up to me and ask if I use "real swords" in kendo...I don't really know what to tell them because they wouldn't, couldn't understand if I began to explain to them what I was doing. There's more than just that, but I just find it funny and at times extremely annoying. What do you say to such morons in your experience?

[Twobitmage]

How do you deal with people that are chronically ignorant of anything and everything Oriental? People at my school ask me the most ridiculous, idiotic questions about when they see me practicing suburi in the gym. When retarded kids come up to me and ask if I use "real swords" in kendo...I don't really know what to tell them because they wouldn't, couldn't understand if I began to explain to them what I was doing. There's more than just that, but I just find it funny and at times extremely annoying. What do you say to such morons in your experience?

I dunno. Dont practice suburi in gym class?

I find the best solution to avoid questions like that is to NOT chime in and say "I do martial arts" every chance you get.

[Paulus]

I suppose the best would be to instigate 'em doin suburi and get asked the same in turn! That should make them smarter and closer to truth

[Hai_hai's_mom]

How do you deal with people that are chronically ignorant of anything and everything Oriental? .... What do you say to such morons in your experience?
I tell them I'm really a ninja.:wink:

[joekc6nlx]

When people ask me, I just tell them I'm practicing kendo. If they want to know more, then they'll ask, otherwise, they just shake their heads and walk away. I don't try to explain myself unless someone's interested in what I'm doing. At least you can practice suburi in gym - I know of one guy in my dojo who was told that he couldn't practice suburi because it was a weapon, even though he was using a shinai.

My feeling is that if you reply to the questioner with a smartass remark, you are turning away someone who might be genuinely interested in taking kendo. You can the best spokesman for kendo if you think about their point of view - they may have absolutely no idea what is involved, and this is your chance to present kendo in a positive light for them.

[ISSAC RU]

don't tell them anything...
it wil make them curious..
after that they will start to search kendo by themselevs on internet..
and get to know kendo

[StormTyrant]

Dont take the the wrong way, maybe theres something im missing here, but as ignorant as you say these people are, how intelligent is it to judge them so harshly? to even call them retarded(unless they actually are retarded) After reading your post i dont really see much of a difference between you and the people you talk about, just one does kendo and the other knows nothing about it. Seems to me like you think your better than them somehow, i mean from the words you chose, if it bothers you so much that you have to insult people behind their back on message boards, then i suggest stoping, or changing your point of view.

[KenShi_JoB]

Dont take the the wrong way, maybe theres something im missing here, but as ignorant as you say these people are, how intelligent is it to judge them so harshly? to even call them retarded(unless they actually are retarded) After reading your post i dont really see much of a difference between you and the people you talk about, just one does kendo and the other knows nothing about it. Seems to me like you think your better than them somehow, i mean from the words you chose, if it bothers you so much that you have to insult people behind their back on message boards, then i suggest stoping, or changing your point of view.
totally agree, but I might add that not knowing about kendo doesn't mean they are retards.

[Anime12478]

Maybe it's just based on the responses that they usually give. I don't really know, but this is my chance to be the Devil's Advocate.

[Richiro]

Yeah after my first few practices of kendo, I would go into a carpeted room in our school and sit in seiza so i could get better. People that come into this room asked questions like that.But you cant blame them because when u were a beginner you probably asked "stupid" questions. I really don't care what people ask me about anything i do.

[taganahan]

when someone asks me these kind of questions, i tell them i do kendo. when they don't get what kendo is, i tell them again that i do japanese fencing. and when they still don't get it, i just ask them this question....."do you want to come with me during my practice?".

~taganahan

[joekc6nlx]

As I was fond of telling my students, "There is no such thing as a stupid question, except the one you didn't ask." Of course, that implies that they are paying attention and don't ask a question again that just got answered and they missed because they were 'out to lunch'.

[Hai_hai]

How do you deal with people that are chronically ignorant of anything and everything Oriental? People at my school ask me the most ridiculous, idiotic questions about when they see me practicing suburi in the gym. When retarded kids come up to me and ask if I use "real swords" in kendo...I don't really know what to tell them because they wouldn't, couldn't understand if I began to explain to them what I was doing. There's more than just that, but I just find it funny and at times extremely annoying. What do you say to such morons in your experience?
You don't want to call someone retarded because they don't know something. You can answer their questions.
People who study kendo sometimes use real swords for kata. I don't know why you have to be so "high and mighty".

[Neil Gendzwill]

By practising in a public place you are pretty much begging for comments and questions. This smacks of the people who have purple hair and a bunch of piercings who complain when they get stared at.

Just politely answer their questions as best you can - who knows, maybe you'll end up recruiting some people for your club. Remember you too were once someone who didn't know much about kendo.

[Simon R]

I do try to answer questions as truthfully and non-sarcastically as I can, and I'm not calling people who don't know what we do as "retards." I misspoke...I guess what I'm really complaining about is the people who come and mock kendo and say things like "hey, let me get my sword and I'll China-fight you" (real quote, sadly). I guess I just have a hard time dealing with ignorant people who are content being that way.

[Koki]

Once i was asked why i practiced Kendo, i said "Well, because in Kendo i wack people in the head, yet they say 'thank you', plus it is a stress reliever" :D

[Optomitrist]

Do not frown for those who do not know the way (tao). It is those people who make us really shine :)