The Way We Talk on the 6H forum
I remember doing some exercises (as a group) with my first Taiji teacher back around 1982-83. He was a native-born Chinese man who had grown up most of his life in Taiwan. He would sometimes say something before exercises like, "Let's get the qi moving". Bear in mind, BTW, that this man had a western Ph.D. in geology and worked with an American oil exploration firm.
My teacher's world-view, though, was very much that of a traditional Chinese man and he taught many things using the qi-paradigm, as best he was able (I can't judge from any personal expertise).
Of course, we westerners would describe a preliminary warmup exercise vaguely as "loosening up", "warming up", or some such term, recognizing that there are circulation factors, muscle readiness, and other things in a "warmup". The same physical action of preparing the body via exercise can be described as a "warmup" in English and "get the qi moving" from a Chinese point of view. What we do here on the 6H forum is try and talk about Chinese exercises and techniques, but we try to translate the actions so that they're understood from a western point of view, something that we all understand a little better.
Often I see western "teachers" leaning their teaching heavily on Chinese terms and I feel that in some ways many of them are using the Chinese terms idiosyncratically and as a sort of veil/pretense from which they can assert their bona fides as an expert. I see teachers talk about dantian, qi, jin, fajin, etc., in ways that aren't really correct, but the students don't know better and are confused ... often assuming that the problem is their own ignorance.
Probably, if the western teaching community was able to get together and talk openly about what they know and don't know, we'd make a lot better progress. As long as people are protective about their reputations and income, though, probably not much is going to change.
My suggestion is to avoid too much reliance on Chinese terms and to be able to explain all movements and techniques in western physiology terms. "If you really understand a topic, you should be able to explain it to your grandmother". But don't try to baffle your grandmother by speaking Chinese to her. ;)
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