> Den 6. jun. 2024 kl. 20.34 skrev Tung Ken Lam via Origami
> <origami@lists.digitalorigami.com>:
> I've started to list "Things Called OrigamiTthat Are Not Origami" here
>
> https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/NotOrigami
>
> Publishers want me to use the word "Origami" in book titles for marketing
> purposes. I don't mind as it's a loan word.
I still remember Microsofts "Project Origami"
(https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna11732808). For a couple of months it was really
difficult to google origami because all the top results were "Project Origami"
:-)
In Danish, I always announce using the word "Origami". It catches the eye.
Internationally, having a common word provides us with a higher degree of
coherence. E.g. looking for conventions or books, it is much easier to find
because we just search for "origami". Yes, we have national words like
"Papierfalten", "Pliage", "Pajarita", "Papel", "Vika", and Denmark
"foldning"/"folderier"/"papirfoldning". But we all use the word "origami" in
the description making it really easy to search. My books might not always have
"origami" in the title (and I self-publish with "papirfoldning.dk"), but then
at least the subtitle has the word "origami" in it, precisely to be
recognisable.
Then, when I lecture on origami, I make the corrective story about the Mayans,
Tsai Lun, Ghiery, Fröbel-Kindergartens-went-to-Japan-by-end-1800s, and so on,
and that, yes, origami is more integrated into Japanese culture than most other
countries, but look, here in Denmark, we have origami books from the 1930's and
40s, Hans Christian Andersen wrote about a paper boat and invented the woven
heart, and "everybody" learns the fortune teller and paper airplanes as
children. My grandchild at 6 currently folds dozens of airplanes a week, and
though he might be a tad influenced by me, he learned several of the airplanes
from his friends at Kindergarten and since last Monday, at school.
I believe "origami" is the word known and used in most different languages,
which is also part of the grand story about our art.
Regards,
Hans
Hans Dybkjær, papirfoldning.dk.
