A collocation is a pair of words that “usually” go together, like “play soccer,” “do laundry,” “go skiing,” etc. without a set rule.
What verb would you use with:
karate
judo
kung fu
kendo
Japanese people I have spoken with think it should be “play” because to them, it’s a sport (like playing basketball.) My knee jerk reaction is that it should be “do” since you are doing a specific task (do the dishes, do laundry.) However, “go” might also qualify, since you are going to a particular location to do these things. “I am doing tai chi” sounds ok, but “doing judo” does not.
Imho, in the west, the martial arts are a class, so should it be “study,” as in “I am studying karate?”
*I should kick you in the nads for forgetting…*practice. It nicely covers both the learning and the doing.
Study sounds too formal and is not usually applied to physical activity.
Do seems to ignore the ongoing training.
Play implies “for fun” only, belying the (potentially serious) self-defense aspect. However, judo is a special case, having long been deemed a sport even in the West. There is a long tradition of playing judo.
Go?!? As in “go karate-ing?” Or even worse, “go karate?” C’mon.
Shodan said just what I was thinking. Either practice or train. If you are going to a tournament or such though, you could use compete or perform (for forms/kata competition).
I chose “study” (my karate school is very formal, and there actually is some studying as we have to know all the terms for our level in Japanese (the transliteration, not the characters!), and there’s a written test at promotion).
But I also find “train” to be appropriate, and probably more common than “study.”
I certainly see his point and wouldn’t argue, but I sort of like it: a Judoka inviting a friendly randori with “wanna play?” the same way a BJJ guy would invite you with “wanna roll?” It just seems to get the spirt of randori right - mutual respect, enjoyment, and learning, not trying to tear each others heads off or getting in an ego battle.
