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Old 08-07-2014, 02:17 PM   #155
kewms
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 1,318
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Re: Demonstrating aiki, demontrating aikido.Same thing ?

Quote:
Keith Larman wrote: View Post
To use a rather mundane example, I was sitting on a test board listening to an enthusiastic student ramble on about the meaning of saying "Onegaishimasu". He talked about how it meant "let's train together, let's share out bodies, let's learn together" and so forth. I swear I was wondering how many bowls he'd smoked before I finally interrupted and pointed out that it's *literal* definition was rather, well, boring. "If you will" or something along those lines. Meaning all that extra stuff he was talking about was great and all. And certainly in conext of the use in the dojo there is some degree of that meaning being attached since *in context* that's how it is being used as a part of reigi. That said this guy truly thought it quite literally meant all these things in a strict sense. Later on after a class he went on to explain to me how it was so cool that the kanji for Ai in Aikido also means love. I kept trying to tell him that no, in fact it doesn't, but he was adamant. He was unaware of how there are many different kanji pronounced "ai" with varied meanings and that the kanji for the ai of Aikido is different from the kanji for "ai" in love.
Ugh. Trying to argue about subtleties of meaning in a language that you don't speak is a really great way to publicly embarrass yourself...

I don't think being a Japanophile is necessary if you're going to study Japanese martial arts, but hearing a waitress saying "saba maki onegaishimasu" to the sushi chef does provide a useful counterpoint to excessive romanticism.

Quote:
With respect to some of the aspects of what we're doing, guys like Dan, Toby, Mike, Ark, Kuroda, et al would not be having the success in teaching and transmission if they weren't further explicating what their "old world" words mean in a more fleshed out manner. And then high ranking folk like Gleason, Ledyard, and quite a few folk I know quite well that fly in under the radar wouldn't be sitting in those seminars and using that to help them learn to better transmit what it is they may have already been doing, albeit at a less fleshed out level. And to watch people make huge leaps in ability once a different approach is tried is a testament to the increased clarity.

No, I don't think Erick here is anywhere near what's going on. But I appreciate the effort and I appreciate that he's trying to come up with a systematic approach. And I also think that the appearance of rigor and the appearance of "scientific" can also be deceiving, giving a false sense of authority. But when someone can come over, shift my hips and then explain in more concrete terms what's happening inside my body *and* it lines up with the sensations I feel at the time, it makes it easier for me to do it again and hopefully pass it along to the next person.
Definitely agree on both points. Finding the balance between mechanistic explanation, intuitive teaching metaphors, and simply getting out of the way so students can train is much harder than I think most non-teachers realize.

Katherine

Last edited by kewms : 08-07-2014 at 02:21 PM.
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