In studying some Japanese, I came across an interesting term: 棒暗記 bō-anki 'stick-memorization'. Translated to English, 棒暗記 bō-anki is basically the same as "rote memorization" (Weblio):
文章を、意味や内容に関係なく、そのまま覚えること。
Memorizing a text without regard to meaning or content
Another friend brought my attention to another similar term: 棒読み bō-yomi 'stick-reading'. Interestingly a search for this term on Weblio returned a couple of mostly translated into English definitions, rather than Japanese definitions, which are (fully) translated and presented below:
- read (a passage) in a monotone
- (of a Classical kanbun text) read aloud without interpreting the meaning into (contemporary) Japanese
In both stick reasoning and stick reading, no regard is given to meaning. Syllables are memorized, or syllables are repeated [1].
'Stick-reading', as far as I can tell, doesn't yet have a common direct translation in English. The closest thing I can think of is a specialized usage in linguistics of the word "decoding" in (applied) linguistics. This refers to the act of going from glyph (e.g. letters in English) to sounds.
So now, we have some useful words for describing how one can "Learn to read Korean in BLAH minutes", recite <INSERT YOUR CHOICE RELIGIOUS TEXT> without understanding, or even learn to play back some sequence of notes on a musical score without being particularly musical.
Stick Writing, Stick Reasoning
Do you think this will stick? (Har har)
This 棒 bō- 'stick' prefix could be useful for many sorts of actions we unfortunately see a lot of today, especially in schools. Some new words I just made up:
- 棒書き bō-kaki 'stick writing': A perfectly formatted paper (MLA format, five paragraphs, whatever is required) that reiterates what was taught in class
- 棒論法 bō-rompō 'stick reasoning': what ideologues do
- 棒料理 bō-ryōri 'stick cooking': dogmatically following a recipe while cooking without regard to which ingredients are being used and why (not the Chinese way 😛)
In any case, let's fight the good fight sticking up for reason and evidence before we find ourselves stuck in some very sticky situations.
Notes:
[1]: You cheeky linguists, don't even begin about moras vs syllables!
[2]: Google scholar returns over a million results for "decoding reading"Labels: Japanese, language, linguistics