Our Karate Philosophy... or "style" of no style :)

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What is the "name" of the Karate we do?
hm an interesting question asked by one of our students.
Apparently, he was at a family function and someone there who is a black belt asked what the specific name of the karate we do is. When the student said well its just Karate, the black belt said “uh NO there is NO such thing as just karate”
...... Okay well here goes a lesson on words and meanings and philosophy all at once...from my perspective of course these are my opinions and observations if you dont agree...no big deal... you have that right here goes;

Karate.... means empty hand
Tae Kwon do......means way of kicking and punching
Ju Jitsu......means gentle technique
Ju Do....means gentle way
HapKi Do....way of flowing energy
Kung Fu.....means great skill
Kempo.....means fist law etc

what are these?
They are words and or sentences that describe what we are doing these are not actually "things" like a rock or a cat.
What about Shotokan or Goju or shaolin or choy li fut?
These are names of schools that train in self defense techniques. Most of the time these names are from the founders of the school or a description of how they train etc., again these don’t describe "what" they are like a brown cat or heavy rock, it’s just a name like ford or dodge it’s not what it is it’s what it is named after.
When someone says to me do you do Karate? Initially my response is well yes, but I also do taekwondo, jujitsu, kung fu, judo
......because these are descriptions not actual things they merely describe what we do.... We do kicking and punching, and gentle technique and great skills...etc
The issue is that western society has a tenancy to label everything, and usually incorrectly. So now the general perception of something in this case self defense training is lumped under one name such as Karate or TaeKwondo or Kung Fu. There isn’t actually one word or label that can lump it all together because even though it is all similar in practice and is basically the means
to the same end its still executed differently.
Then there’s the term Martial Arts..... Martial.....means military, Art...meaning style or system so I DO NOT tell people that I teach Martial Arts anymore because I am not training soldiers. Martial art would mean that students would be training to go to war, learning firearms, explosives, etc.
I teach Self Defense which, is the original purpose of what we do.
Yes a large number of schools came from military back grounds as to where they started being taught the original Okinawan systems of self defense came from royal families teaching specifically to their own, eventually making its way into the public.
So to that end of the day, I teach self defense as the original adage was defense first defense only no first attack.
When someone asks me what type of karate i do..... I say .....All types
LOL ok end of rant are you confused yet? Im not just ask and ill tell ya
Sensei T