Should we pluralize Japanese words as they become part of the English language?

[Knicky]

The problem that I, as well as others, have with this is that just because it is easy to change and pluralize a foreign word to suit English grammar doesn't mean that we should. To me, it's akin to doing literal translations of foreign phrases/words and robbing them of their cultural connotations. I am a native English speaker yet having grown up in Japan, I have a very, very hard time pluralizing Japanese words due to knowing Japanese grammar.

I gotta agree with this. I'm sure anyone who's tried to translate has a few headaches at times trying to keep the cultural connotation of some phrases/words because you can't translate them literally.

I think if Japanese words conform too much to English grammar then the meaning will change as well. However, I don't really think many Japanese words will get imported into English.

[Wraith]

I think 'ya all' should speak ta Queen's inglish!

Still goy ya back Sensei Bob

[Big One]

I have a Karate dojo near my house with Sensei Butts, beat that.

[hl1978]

I have a Karate dojo near my house with Sensei Butts, beat that.

There is a guy called King Poon at work.

you can find his name listed as the primary examiner on the below patent

http://www.patentgenius.com/patent/7619637.html

[Bokushingu]

My wife just informed me that the plural for Sensei is "Sensei-gata." I have, in the past and on this forum, been lazy and tried to pluralize sensei...but that was lazy & ignorant--all I had to do was ask someone who was fluent and trained since birth in the Language.

i think it is proper to use the word how it was intended to be used when it is in its origin. For example, using Japanese words when discussing something Japanese. you can't Americanize something from another culture when it is in its own culture. It would be like someone coming ito your home & saying hey, "where i'm from i do this...so I'm going to do it in your house!"

[atgm]

I'm reluctant to use "sensei-gata" in English because it's inscrutable. "gata" is an inflected form of "kata," which is a polite way of referring to people in Japanese. Yet "kata" is used in a completely different sense (phonetically speaking) for most English martial arts practitioners, which just makes the issue all the more confusing. So in English, I just say something like "I consulted several sensei" or something to make my meaning clear. After all, you can do that in Japanese as well; you don't need to explicitly state the plural.

[slidercrank]

Many have said that we should not inflect Japanese nouns for plurals, because in the Japanese language, nouns don't have plural forms. My view is that this is a narrow reasoning.

Each language has its own system of grammar, and each has its own way of dealing with plurals. So does Japanese, I presume. Here we are using a Japanese noun in an English sentence, not in a Japanese sentence. Therefore, if we do not use normal English grammatical rules, then we will lose quite a bit of information. To an English speaker, he understands automatically the intended meaning when he hears a noun with an "s" suffix. This is the most convenient and widely understood way of conveying the meaning of plurals in English, and therefore it will be the most likely way that a borrowed foreign noun is going to be inflected. It's not right or wrong; it's just that in a language, the most convenient way survives.

One either understands and accepts this, or one spends one's day getting worked up futilely over "sushis" or "senseis".

Furthermore, personally I think it is simply unreasonable to ask a native English speaker to use a foreign noun and follow the foreign grammar (*whack* It's not "bogus!" No inflection for nouns in Japanese!). You want to keep it real, then why don't we all speak Japanese the moment we bow into the dojo? And heck, why did I just put an article "the" in front of "dojo?" There is no article in Japanese!!

[b8amack]

As I said, it will sort itself out. I think sushi has become uncountable in English, though. Most people will say "I like sushi", as one will say "I like bread".

[yoda-waza]

Say it the way you like - plural or not - but others will judge your choice. Avoid the dufus effect if you can. That's all I'm saying.

[Charlie]

I used to say "dojos" until I realized that is not the plural, so I stopped. Now I say, "And you can visit all the dojo in our area" instead of "all the dojos in our area." Ditto "shinai." "Are you ordering some shinai?" versus "Are you ordering some shinais?"

Once I learned what was correct, I used it, especially in a kendo context where learning some Japanese words, phrases and sentences correctly is expected.