Almost no-one turned up for tai chi this morning. With Ren Zhou Kun off for a month caring for her granddaughter, and me being sick for a week, the people in our small group have drifted away. It was also overcast and a little windy. By 6:15 there was only Xue Gong Ling, the male student who had started learning only recently, and me.
A while later a couple of other experienced women (in stunning tai chi outfits) passed by on their way to practice with the large group that I met on 7 September. Ren Zhou also arrived (with her granddaughter in tow) and convinced the younger woman to stay and give us some instruction.
She was embarrassingly good, and spent over an hour with us, making minor corrections and explaining more about the movements and how to do them properly. I don’t know here name yet. Names are not exchanged here until a relationship has been established.
Again I got the impression that there is so much to learn, so all I can hope to do is achieve some minor improvements and become more familiar with the main forms that they practice. On the way back, in discussion with Xue Gong Ling, he talked about wanting to be a teacher as he thought that would be something that he’d really like to do.
He was worried though that he may become bored and start to become like some of his teachers that have lost their enthusiasm and are basically going through the motions. I suggested that he could take a break as I have and do something else for a while, or have a career change, but he reminded me that this is China. People just don’t do that, and he said that if he left teaching, he would never be re-employed as a teacher!
As usual, I’ll be spending most of the remainder of the day in lesson preparation.
Below is a demonstration of part of the 42 form we were working on today (it was quite windy).
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| Snake creeps through the grass |
She was embarrassingly good, and spent over an hour with us, making minor corrections and explaining more about the movements and how to do them properly. I don’t know here name yet. Names are not exchanged here until a relationship has been established.
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| Xue Gong Ling receiving instruction |
He was worried though that he may become bored and start to become like some of his teachers that have lost their enthusiasm and are basically going through the motions. I suggested that he could take a break as I have and do something else for a while, or have a career change, but he reminded me that this is China. People just don’t do that, and he said that if he left teaching, he would never be re-employed as a teacher!
As usual, I’ll be spending most of the remainder of the day in lesson preparation.
Below is a demonstration of part of the 42 form we were working on today (it was quite windy).
