What is the reason &/or origin behind the ITF using Roman numerals? (eg. IV Dan)
Roman Dan numbers in ITF
- Thread starter IcemanSK
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WMKS Shogun
Green Belt
My guess (and this is only a guess, no factual information to back this up) is that in this day and age they are nearly universally recognized and understood (while making the belt different from a typical black belt). Just my guess. I hope this helps get the ball rolling to finding out the truth.
e ship yuk
Yellow Belt
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Actually, Arabic numerals like 1 and 2 are much more common in my experience. You can see them in many Asian language newspapers and websites.
Laurentkd
Master Black Belt
I was going to say the same thing. I don't think I've ever seen Roman numerals outside of the US (I haven't been to Rome!) but you see Arabic numerals everywhere.
Just an opinion, but maybe Roman numerals are easier to see/read from a distance? Or maybe the original founders of the system just thought they looked cooler!
This is in keeping with what I thought as well. I don't recall an exact reason - but I do remember that when I first started TKD the BBs had stripes, not numbers, on their belts; from any distance, larger numbers of stripes is hard to count, but Roman numerals, which became popular sometime after I started, are easier to see than Arabic numerals.
I also remember that stripes used to be strips of fabric sewn onto the belt, rather than embroidered - much of the current fashion of having heavily embroidered belts came from an improvement in the embroidery machines, which previously couldn't go through the thickness of the belt, more than anything else. Once embroidery became the popular - and accessible - means of showing rank on a belt, the level of detail increased considerably; you can do a lot more with embroidery than fabric strips.
