Japanese terminology is used in the Koei-Kan system because it is the native language of the country where the system was founded and developed. This procedure is commonly followed in the Oriental Martial Arts because the technical terminology used (in this case, Japanese) serves as a universal method of communication between practitioners of a given system, so that they may train together even though they are from different countries and speak different languages. This is similar to the use of Latin among physicians. In pronouncing Japanese terms, the consonants are, for the most part, pronounced similarly to those in English and the vowels are pronounced like those in Spanish and Italian.