Bokou (母校 - Old School)

I visited my "bokou" (母校) yesterday.

Bokou is a school that one's graduated from, that is, it is "old school" or "old university."

Bo (母) means 'mother' and kou (校) means 'school.'
(Here kou(校) is short for gakkou (学校).)

As you can guess, this word compares the school with one's parents who raised them, however, the word fu (父 - father) is never used.

In the Meiji period in Japan, the word gakkou (学校 - school) was chosen as the translation of the English 'school' and the French 'école.'

Also, in many European languages containing French, nouns were classified into male nouns and feminine nouns, and 'école' was a feminine noun.

Because of this, we came to call "a school like parents" bokou.

母校

私は昨日、「母校」を訪れました。

「母校」とは卒業した学校、すなわち "old school" や "old university" のことです。

「母」は 'mother,' 「校」は 'school' を意味します。

その学校は自分を育ててくれた親であるという意味が込められているわけですが、「父」という字が使われることはありません。

明治時代、「学校」という言葉は英語の 'school,' フランス語の 'école' の訳として選ばれました。

また、フランス語を含むヨーロッパの言語の多くは、名詞が男性名詞と女性名詞に分類されており、'école' は女性名詞でした。

このことから、「親なる学校」のことを「母校」と言うようになったそうです。

• Bokou (母校 - Old School)
• Bokou (母校 - Old School)

  In English, we use the Latin term “alma mater.”

• Bokou is a school that one's graduated from, that is, it is "old school" or "old university."
• Bokou is a school that one's one graduated from, that is, it is one's "old school" or "old university."

• (Here kou(校) is short for gakkou (学校).)
• (Here, kou(校) is short for gakkou (学校).)

• In the Meiji period in Japan, the word gakkou (学校 - school) was chosen as the translation of the English 'school' and the French 'école.'
• In the Meiji period in Japan, the word gakkou (学校 - school) was chosen as the translation of the English word 'school' and the French word 'école.'

• Also, in many European languages containing French, nouns were classified into male nouns and feminine nouns, and 'école' was a feminine noun.
• This sentence is perfect! No correction needed!

• Because of this, we came to call "a school like parents" bokou.
• Because of this, we came to call "a school like parents" bokou.

  a school like one's parents, a school similar to one's parents may sound more natural

To give more context to the comment above

Your alma mater is your old school, college or university. It's generally used as a positive term, implying reverence and loyalty for the nurturing qualities of the institution. Alma mater comes from two Latin words meaning "nourishing or bountiful mother."

Copied from wikipedia :)