Well, some weeks ago I came across the thought, that it might be helpful to get some information about the japanese language in general even though I do not intend to learn it at the moment. I am not known for being good at grammar or in following certain rules, I usually just talk (or write) my way through or out of things :-) . But knowing some facts about a foreign language may help to better understand the people, the culture. And in case of karate it's (mostly) the ancient japanese culture it is coming from. Let me cite Vera Birkenbiehl who said that you can't think what you can't speak.

In my beginning studies of the basic principles of japanese language the first thing I found out is that they have no plural form. Talking about bottles or trees this is not that impressing as it is when it comes to immaterial words as truth, integrity, opinion or candor. Or, in my special case - (karate) "do". A japanese person probably knows it could be one or many if you are talking about opinion for example and they would never understand our western habit of persisting on our viewpoints instead of being cool, just knowing that every viewpoint is just one of many by nature. Interesting stuff, Í must say.

The book I use for my studies is "Von Null Ahnung zu etwas Japanisch. Dies ist kein Sprachkurs " where I found that news about the plural-free japanese. I look forward to more explorations on japanese culture by the language and keep you posted :-) By the way: the book is worth every cent.