The next Japanese sensation?

Here’s another word to add to the growing list of Japanese concepts to take out of context but still keep it somewhat in context in English.

The word is ‘shisei’ 姿勢.

This is the word for your actual posture. When you want to remind someone that they need to keep their back straight and their shoulders back, shisei is the word you use. Shisei is also the word for your attitude, for how you approach things.

You could probably just translate shisei as stance, as this works for both physical and mental stance. However, I think there are some key differences between the English stance and attitude. Stance is static, you are just standing there. Attitude is very much about how you go about things. And when it comes to Shisei, attitude is all that matters.

That this word encompasses both your posture and your attitude is nothing short of a miracle. We know that if you’re feeling down, one way to get out of it is to make sure your posture is as good as it could be. Seemingly like magic, your physical posture helps fix your mental attitude, and Shisei goes a far way in reminding us of this.

So, there you have it. A word that encompasses two very important things, and just so happens to be Japanese as well.