Taking tai chi class in Chinese - what words should I know?

[trisha2766]

I don't know if anyone would be able to help with this or not, but I thought it would be worth asking.

I'll be taking a tai chi class starting next week at a local weekend Chinese school. I visited the class a couple times previously. Once I participated, the other time I just watched. The time I participated the teacher spoke mostly in English, but when I was just watching he only spoke in Chinese.

I felt kind of bad because I was the only non-Chinese person there, so he had to teach differently just because of me - or felt like he had to anyway. The Chinese people in the class may have been able to better understand what was being taught if he had spoke in Chinese - I don't know how good their English is, at any rate it is their second language.

Anyway, I have a list of all the parts for the form he is teaching - both the pinyin and characters.

But - what other words might be useful for me to learn so that the teacher could teach in Chinese? Obvious body part words like hand, leg, etc. are easy enough to look up. But how do you say things like 'keep your leg straight', 'don't bend your leg', etc. that the teacher might say? Any other ideas for phrases, etc. that a tai chi teacher might use?

I'm not sure what to say to him about it either - like how do I explain I don't want to slow down the rest of the class, or have him teach it differently just for me. I guess I can tell him I'm learning Chinese too so having the class taught in Chinese would be good for my listening skills. But I also can't expect him to teach me all the Chinese words and phrases I need to know to understand the class without English.

Any ideas? Or am I just worrying too much?

[imron]

The names of the individual moves probably won't be much use until you actually know them. The names themselves can sometimes be a bit abstract, so don't try to think too much about the meaning, just associate it with the actual move as you learn it.

Anyway, besides the names, here are some other bits of useful vocab that you'll hear all the time (pinyin is left as an exercise for the reader ):

放松 - relax. (but keep in mind that relaxed doesn't mean limp (弱). Limp is just as bad as tense. You need to use as much strength as necessary to hold a position, but no more).

松肩 - relax the shoulders.

垂肘 - sink your elbows (e.g. have them pointing towards the ground)

(usually you hear the above two used together 松肩垂肘, as they are pretty central to Taichi).

腰 - waist. In Taichi, all movement/strength comes from the waist.

转腰 - turn at your waist.

肩 - shoulder.

肘 - elbow

手 - hand

手腕 - wrist

胯 - hips.

膝盖 - knee (in standard Mandarin this should be pronounced xīgài, but some people pronounce it qīgài, so it's something to be aware of).

脚 - foot

脚尖 - front end of your foot (e.g. the toes)

脚跟 - heel.

后脚跟 - the back heel.

重心 - center of weight. For example, with regards to a given move, you might ask 重心在哪？(Where [should] my weight be), to which your teacher might reply 重心在后退 - [your] weight [should be] on your back leg.

意 - abbreviation of 意念.

意念 - thought/focus. This is your inner thought. In Taichi, you are training your internal thought to be coordinated with your external movement. So, for example, if a given move starts at the waist then moves to the shoulder, then through to the elbow, the wrist, your hand and then finally the ends of your fingers you should try to move your internal thought or 意 in coordination with your external movements.

气 - Qi. Forget about anything you may have heard about what Qi is or isn't. Just think of it as the feeling you feel in a given part of your body when you focus your 意 there. 气 is guided by your 意 and where your 意 goes, your 气 will follow.

眼神 - the direction/look of your eyes.

丹田 - an area in your abdomen about two-three fingers below your belly-button.

扣脚 - turn your foot inwards, pivoting on the heel (e.g. your toes move inwards).

开脚 - turn your foot outwards, pivoting on the heel.

蹬脚 - with regards to a stance, turn your foot outwards, pivoting on the toes (e.g. the heel moves outwards), with regards to a kick, kick with the heel.

分脚 - kick with the toes.

弓腿 - bow stance. Front knee is bent and in line with your front foot, and the back leg is extended. A picture says a thousand words.

后座 - sit back.

窄 - narrow (often used to describe your stance e.g. your stance is too 窄).

宽 - wide (opposite of narrow).

别撅屁股 - don't stick your butt out.

别低头 - don't lower your head.

和……一般高 - as high as your …… e.g. 和肩一般高 - as high as your shoulder

Well, that should be a whole bunch to get you started. I may add some more as I think of them. Feel free to ask any questions.

What style of Taichi will you be learning?

[jishuyuxin]

May me you are worrying too much.To you,both methods are helpful,i think .if the teacher use Chinese,not only you can master the class,but you will improve your Chinese,isn't right?On the contrary,if the teacher use English,you can learn class better.certainly that you can communicate with your classmates about the lessons using Chinese.

[trisha2766]

Thank you very much imron!

Its yang style 16 form. I got a dvd and book for 24 form a year ago and learned it the best I could on my own, I hadn't found a convenient (and not horribly expensive) place to take a class yet. So I am familiar with the basic moves. I'd still like to learn a longer form, but I like the way this guy teaches so I am looking forward to it.

This should give me a good start. He did say a few things in Chinese, directed specifically to individual people. I'll try to listen and see how much of that I can understand. Then eventually I can let him know I'm learning Chinese and maybe he will gradually be able to use less English in the class.