Gernot Hassenpflug

Speaking of the "teachers don't show" point in Asia, there's also the "teachers tell their upper-level students not to tell lower-level students". Which means that if one makes some "friends" in the dojo, and especially as a Westerner is fooled by the smiley faces and joyful atmosphere of the dojo (!), and then asks a question about "how" to do something, the answer is most often "I don't know how I do it", or "just concentrate on (some vague and practically useless thing)". So one can get stumped at just about any corner one wishes to try to get around. I've managed to make some real friends who told me about this, otherwise I might have concluded everyone else is as dumb as me!