What did he say?

"Shindam ne-rablay-ru Sensei ni rei"

Whaaat?  This is what Sensei Mike Hatgis would say as the class bowed in and out.  I don’t know Japanese, but I knew this call was incorrect.  I knew that the only consonant that ends Japanese words is ‘N’, so shindam was out.  I knew ‘shinden’ means ‘temple’ or ‘shrine’.  In his defense, Sensei Hatgis knows no Japanese, and was simply pronouncing it as best he could.

Facebook is wonderful for certain things.  I made a post in the group called ‘Karate Nerds’ and got some educated guesses.  Sensei Ted Conway, our California Kenkojuku cousin, gave a very educated response.  Here is the post and some comments:

 

I could use the help of you fellow nerds figuring out what my American sensei was trying to say as we bowed in.  As we bowed, he would call, "Shindam ne-rablay-ru sensei ni rei."  I'm sure that's what he thought his Japanese sensei called.  I'm familiar with 'Shinden' (shomen; sacred place) and 'sensei ni rei' (bow with sensei), but have no idea about 'ne-rablay-ru'.  Any ideas?

     -Ted Conway to Steve Gottwirt Sensei: at the Honbu Dojo, one line of the bow-in sequence is "Shinzen narabini Kokki ni rei (神前並びに国旗に礼) loosely translated as "in front of the shrine and national flag, bow". So in your case, maybe..."in front of the shrine and teacher, bow". (narubini = 並びに = and; also)

     -Steve Gottwirt to Ted Conway-sensei: Thank you for this information. This makes more sense. 'Shinden naribini', and 'sensei ni rei' would be 'Before the shrine and Sensei (photos of Funakoshi, Okano, etc) we show respect (bow). 'Kokki' (the national flag) was not part of what was said. The small sound 'ru' was probably mis-heard by Sensei Hatgis.

     -Steve Gottwirt to Ted Conway-sensei: I just read that 'ru' (る) means 'to'. Possibly 'Shinden narabini ru sensei ni rei' (神前並びにる先生に礼), ‘Bow (thanks) to the teacher(s) before the shrine'.