Kobayashi Maru
 

I understand that "kobayashi" is a Japanese surname. What does "kobayashi maru" mean?

From what I get, Kobayashi (小林) is like "small grove/forest" and Maru （丸） is "round" or "circle."

There is no English counterpart for it but "maru" is frequently added at the end of a ship's name.

Maru = 丸



Note: I cannot read the other person's post because of my settings. If s/he has already answered correctly, please disregard my post.

Thanks for the info! It makes total sense because Kobayashi Maru was the name of a ship in Star Trek.

No, it is not the name of a ship, but the name of a test.

I have no first-hand knowledge of this but the Wiki says:

"The training exercise in Star Trek II describes the Kobayashi Maru as a Class III neutronic fuel carrier-ship commanded by Kojiro Vance with 81 crew members and 300 passengers."

on this page:
Kobayashi Maru - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the series it is an unwinnable training exercise that naturally Captain Kirk wins (if I remember correctly) in the latest movie. I understand it is named after a ship.

You're correct, MMM.

In any case, English lacks a single thing like this, but we do have a series of "ship prefixes" depending on situation that are equivalent to -maru in Japanese: Ship prefix - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I think the closest true equivalent is "HMS" (for Her/His Majesty's Ship) in the UK. To the best of my knowledge, the HMS Titanic was not a British naval ship, but it was still prefixed by "HMS."

On the other hand, in the US, the most famous one (and most likely the only US prefix any American would know) is "USS," or "United States Ship," used only by the US Navy.

In fact, before I pulled that Wikipedia page, the only ship prefixes I knew of were USS and HMS. Well, I also know "SS," but I don't even know if that's used in modern times. It stands for "steamship."

Mr. Scott lost that test but was able to take out 47 Klingon battle Cruisers by some how manipulateing the Shield freqencies and teleporting Photon Torpedo's directly to each ship.

Not that that matters to the question.

Y'know, I was gonna say pretty much the exact same thing! :mtongue: Thanks Kyle. BTW People on this forum seem to be well versed in Star Trek :eek: All I know is William Shatner and George Takei are in it. Haha.

None of those are really at all close to Maru (丸). The use of Maru for Japanese commercial ship names (it's never used for warships) seems to be a matter of naming tradition; it carries no specific meaning. As masaegu said, there really is no equivalent in English ship-naming practices. All the name prefixes you give have specific identification purposes.

First, there are warship prefixes. USS, as you said, identifies a warship of the U.S. Navy, and likewise for HMS and the Royal Navy. (Like USS, HMS is only used for warships; Titanic did not carry that prefix. You're confusing HMS with RMS; see below.) There are a bunch of other warship prefixes for various nations and purposes (e.g. SMS, "Seiner Majestät Schiff" for the Imperial German Navy of World War One), but not all navies have followed this practice. Neither the Imperial Japanese Navy nor the German Kriegsmarine of World War Two used it, though prefixes have been invented after the fact for both navies for convenience.

A prefix is sometimes used with commercial ships for their mode of propulsion, but this is inconsistent. In the days of steamships this was often SS. Nowadays, when most commercial ships are diesel-engined, it's usually MV ("motor vessel").

There have also been prefixes for commercial ships that have special status. Like many British ocean liners of her day, Titanic carried the prefix "RMS", for "Royal Mail Ship" (or "Royal Mail Steamer"). This meant the British government had licensed her to carry the mail.

There was a Star Trek movie released less than two years ago that featured the Kobayashi Maru. It made hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office.

Looks like the older you are, the more you may know about Star Trek...so I guess I am the oldest! :) I grew up with it and know every line in the short runned TV shows.

The "Kobayashi Maru" was the name afforded a no-win scenario for command-destined cadets of the future (which implies imaginary, of course :) ) The character Captain Kirk - storybooked to be a "throw away the book" type of great commander - when confronted with the Kobayashi Maru test at the Star Fleet Academy won....by cheating.

Just FYI
Without any context,
Kobayashimaru might be the name of a nihontoo (Japanese sword).
Maru is also the suffix of nihontoo's name, as well as ships' name.

For example;
日本刀　雷光丸
日本刀　龍神丸
日本刀　紅丸

Sorry in advance, if this information is redundant.

that's right.
but the tests was a failure in the new movie. how the f* do you experience fear for your team when you know it is a test?
they also did same kind of test to Wezly Crusher who was simply told to sit down and wait - then shit goes BOOM and he has to make life and death decisions without knowing it is a test.
that is how it should have happened.

but i guess thats beside the point. :cool: