I think it would depend how I'm looking at the exchange student. If they're starting (meaning they're trying to learn NGA from the start) a white belt is appropriate, as is the same type of uniform my students wear. If they are there to dabble and learn a bit (like they would at a seminar), then whatever rank they normally wear is appropriate, with whatever they'd normally train in.
Why? I think someone with significant experience (regardless of rank) is equipped to consider how to integrate new knowledge into what they know.
Yes,I do appreciate what you are saying from a utopian standpoint. The potential for learning 'could' be enormous but having seen groups within the same organization or similar organization attempting to cooperate, it can get kind of ..........messy. Even within an association framework, dojos operate as any small business. If the nature of your sport or art is competitive, then you will probably see 'egos' getting in the way of 'collaboration'. It is not always like that but I think there is a reason why this idea is being brought up in a board in 2021 instead of us seeing countless of examples of schools working together. Hopefully there are more than I think there are but I wouldn't say it is common.
The issue isn't with black belts doing it. The issue is with not letting everybody do it.
Honestly, I think that the specific uniform that your school wears, plus the school/association patches on that uniform is what makes the black belt "valid" in your school.
What about all those places that don't care what you wear? Are you saying their rank isn't valid?
That's where school/association patches come in. As long as there's some distinguishing factor, I don't see the problem with them wearing whatever belt.
Not all schools use patches either.
But what if they other guy's does? Now you can clearly see where he got that black belt from.
Some schools require the patch(es) to be on the uniform during testing beyond a certain belt. That's beside the point, but I thought I'd point that out.
Even if they actually become a full student there? I can't imagine how they wouldn't feel out-of-place by doing that, but if your dojang allows it; then if you like it, I love it.
Still tells you nothing whatsoever about them. If I want to know the WHERE, it's easy. I ask. Everything else about them I'll learn by watching and interacting with them.
After 50+ years, I'm quite well aware of what some schools require. My point is that it doesn't matter, except in that school, because it tells you nothing.
Some people are really focused on rank. They don't want to take off their black belt, even if it's from another system. So OK. Changes nothing for me. In my experience, these people don't usually stick around long. Which is another reason for me not to worry about what they wear. This may very well be, at least in part, because students who are nominally lower ranked will ask them a question that a black belt in our system should be able to answer. Not having a clue might well make them feel a bit awkward. From what I have seen, those who are coming to us to learn something new will generally (I can't think of a single exception, but I don't care for absolutes) strap on a white belt and get to work.
Ah yes, the Parable of the Lowest Seat. A rule I try to live my life by, and I think you brought me back to my senses with this statement.
This is why you choose who you work with. There are plenty of people I wouldn't consider doing this with, either because they can't stand being contradicted (and that's sure to happen at some point) or because they don't really approach anything realistic in their training (so I'd just confuse anyone who likes their approach).
I don't think an exchange program (as a short-term visitation) works if every student is part of it. It leaves the instructor they visit having to work with a bunch of short-term students of indeterminate experience, in addition to all the levels of their own students. It's fine for a seminar or for long-term cross training, but doesn't seem feasible on an exchange basis like the OP is talking about.
Pretty much my view, too. I might stop to explain where the person fits in their art (since it's likely different from where that color would fit in my system), but that's probably enough. I've never had a student get confused that a visitor's rank (including when I was the visitor) was the same as ranks in that school unless it was the same art.
I think he's saying having a non-matching uniform is sufficient to identify that the person's rank isn't in the same school (or possibly system).
Funny. To me, it's such a strange mindset not to work together. I know that's the norm, but I can't understand the motivation to wall everyone else out.
When I was looking for a place to teach, I found two dojo owners in the same organization. One couldn’t stand anyone trying to operate at his level in his school, even in the organization. The other opened a school to give a place for other BB’s to train (led by someone senior to her), and loved the idea of me teaching there.
Because there are 3,000 people in the class? I mean seriously... have you ever in your life seen a class that was so big that you don't notice a new person?
I've been in plenty of classes as a student where there was a person there I'd never trained with, so to them I was a high-ranking student they'd not met (and might not readily recognize). Within NGA, belt rank typically tells you what techniques they are capable of taking the falls from, among other things. So being able to identify the new person wearing a rank as not part of the school's regular group (rather than just a person of that rank I'd not met) is helpful.
