Does knowing (some) Chinese help with learning martial arts?
Joachim
June 18, 2008, 09:51 PM posted in General DiscussionDoes some knowledge of Chinese words and phrases help when learning Taijiquan etc.? To what extend?
pretzellogic
June 23, 2008, 06:08 PMI haven't broken down yet to order this, but I saw this in a guy's house once that was exactly the Chinese for the forms I was studying. I noticed that this is for the Five Animals/Five Elements poster. I know we studied this in my kung fu class, but we also studied Northern Long Fist (no poster yet), and Sheng Yi. If you find posters for them, let me know.
http://www.wle.com//products/b080p.html
excuter
June 19, 2008, 10:34 AMSince I´ve started to practice Tai ji quan I never had to use chinese in order to understand something, because the instructors use the translated names for the techniques etc. and there are (at least in Germany) translated versions of books and books from master Jan Silberstorff (in German )and DVD´s etc. which explain everything in great detail. So you won´t have too much use for chinese here, if you don´t go to china and look out for an instructor or if you want to study original books from chinese masters.If you ask your instructor he probably can tell you the chinese names for "push hands" 推手 "Standing Meditation" etc. so you can learn them as well.
here´s the link to the hompage of the taiji organisation I´m in (world chen tai ji quan association germany) www.wctag.de (the english version is under construction...)
mikeinewshot
June 19, 2008, 11:54 AMI have an English teacher in England who learned from a Japanese and now from a Spanard. No use for Chinese there.
I went to Yangshuo in China and the Chinese teachers there were used to teaching people with no Chinese so no use for Chinese there either!
anitagomez
June 19, 2008, 08:01 PMFor me it was just the other way round ...
I started to learn Taijiquan five years ago, I read many books on Taijiquan, searched the internet and guess what? I began to learn Chinese in evening classes in my hometown and then after a while, I stumbled over ChinesePod. For me, it is very helpful to have some basic knowledge of Chinese, very basic as I am still not able to climb over the high walls to intermediate level but I can find interesting video material on Taijiquan on Chinese youtube equivalents and when I go to Taijiquan workshops where there is a Chinese teacher I can at least talk to him/her a little bit. Of course it is not necessary to know Chinese but I know some a number of people who practise Taijiquan who have learned to speak at least some Chinese.
I would like to know how many of you Chinese addicts out there practise Taijiquan or another Chinese martial art? And what was first: Taiji or Chinese?
kimiik
June 20, 2008, 07:08 AMDo you know the movie 功夫之王 ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8vCR8O8XsI
marchey
June 19, 2008, 09:09 AMI have reached the point now where I dabble from time to time in the original versions of the 'taijiquan classics'. Yes, it helps to have some feeling for the multiple layers of meanings that are there, especially if you have a couple of translations and commentaries at hand to help you understand.
I also find that knowing some chinese opens up a whole new world of available teachers for you. When you go to China, you will find that the majority of available good teachers don't speak any English at all, so some Chinese + some knowledge of martial arts terms helps a lot.
Marc
excuter
June 22, 2008, 12:33 PMHi kimiik, I don´t know this movie...but I´ve seen a lot of Hongkong movies.
user39322
June 22, 2008, 12:46 PMhey everybody
3 years ago i studied traditional shaolin martial arts in nothern china for one year. although they had translators there i think, it would have been good to know some chinese. when i came back to germany i decided to learn chinese so i can come back to china and talk to the masters myself. thats why im really motivated to master my chinese. its always good to have an extra motivation to learn something.makes it a lot easier.and chinesepod is a great help too!
继续学习
excuter
June 23, 2008, 12:06 PMSo it´s "a journey to the east" which follows the "journey to the west" ;-)
excuter
June 22, 2008, 12:30 PM@ anitagomez, I started with taiji, than my group broke up and I started learning chinese here at cpod, now I´m in another taiji group and learn chinese here, now tell me why I´m a single...
henning
June 19, 2008, 04:53 AMAsk excuter. As far as I know he is pretty advanced in Taijiquan (and that despite the fact that he lives in Germany)...