If I may chime in from the perspective of a kung fu newbie once again, when I was first researching kung fu schools in my area, I had a very hard time finding the schools I wanted (wing chun or jkd). Instead I found very few others teaching things like "So Rim Kung Fu" and of course "Wah Lum Kung Fu". The main reason I went for Wah Lum (keeping in mind I'm still very new to the school, and am only on my third trial class tonight) was only because it was closer.
The website and most of the information I could find on Wah Lum simply billed it as "Kung Fu" for lack of a less generic and buzzwordy term I suppose. In fact, the only places I've seen it billed as "Wah Lum Tam Tui Northern Praying Mantis Kung Fu" was on the one of 3 total wl clips I could find on youtube, showing some students at a competition or something, on here in very few places (most people on these boards seem to really know what they're doing, so it's obvious why the style isn't expanded far beyond the wl acronym much) and in a very small font on the wl school sites, and even then it's only on the front page (at least for my local school, I don't recall what the temple's site has).
For instance, here is the explanation of the "Kung Fu" taught at my local school (or I guess in general?):
http://www.wahlumdenver.com/kungfu.php
A quick search over the page reveals no mention of the words "mantis", "tam tui" or even "northern".
This leads me to believe that the schools are geared more towards people who just want to learn SOME CMA period. It's not that the expanded name is hidden anywhere, but from a marketing perspective, why would the schools slather it around? Those long hardcore sounding names just give the impression that the school is super traditional and that you'll get caned if you can't keep up with the class or if you're not doing a form correctly (at least to me.. this aspect is the main reason I did research into the schools in the first place!)
The majority of prospective students are likely interested in learning for "self defense", "fitness" or because the term kung fu is abound in movies where there is no mention made of the fact that there are really a vast amount of different styles. In fact, I wouldn't doubt that most people joining kung fu simply aren't aware that there are styles at all.
Thanks again to everyone who's replied to this thread so far. Reading the replies are really interesting to me, regardless of the discussion content. Everyone's opinion is getting taken into account, as I someday (many years from now) plan on being very serious about the cma I take.
I'm also hyped that so many of the oldbies here have taken the time to reply to this thread. I've gone through the history of these boards and have read many posts from years ago, so it's exciting to see you guys are all still around.
@Yao Sing: I'll be sure to tell him when I next see him!
@mantid1: I'm not sure what it is, but I like your whole attitude. I've come across a number of your posts and even though I don't know you I felt fairly sad when I read
http://forum.kungfumagazine.com/foru...8&postcount=19 (a silly as I'm sure it sounds, however I was elated that you chose not to close up shop just yet, I hope this is still the case). I appreciate having your insight in this thread, though that's not to say that I appreciate the other replies any less.
I'm glad that there are so many individual opinions on this subject, it's great food for thought.