Your Japanese word of the week is...

"tadashii" 正しい which means "correct" or "right".  Now before I start, I should point out that I will by no means claim to have all the "right" answers or that anything is 100% "correct".  But perhaps I should set up some context...

A few weeks ago, Takagi Sensei (front row, centre, with the Japanese flag on his karate dogi) came to visit.  Some of you may remember Takagi Sensei as one of the sensei I trained with while I was in Tokyo and is one of the few remaining people to have trained with Otsuka Sensei, the founder of Wado karate.

But since the founding of karate, Wado or otherwise, it's been governed by people and, unfortunately, people are governed by any number of motivating factors.  As such, factions and splits arise in karate just as they would anywhere and, in some ways, it can be worse in something like karate which essentially involves the passage of knowledge rather than simple ownership of an entity.

And the end of one of the sessions, someone asked Takagi Sensei how do they know if they are doing the "right" moves.  His answer, typically, was that it depends; it depends on what you're doing and your beliefs.  But more importantly than that, he stressed that whatever path you choose, you still need to take ownership of it and learn as much as you can.  The onus is on each person to do the find exemplars to follow and work hard.

While it seems rather broad and blanket-y, I will say that it is true to a certain degree.  I really feel that having had the chance to train with a variety of instructors, I can decide for myself who's example I'd like to follow, be it the kind of person the instructor is as well as their technical knowledge.  People like Marta Sensei (R) and Takagi Sensei (Centre).

Speaking of techincal knowledge, the seminars really focussed on the basics and other foundational aspects of movement.  We did a lot of ido kihon (moving basics) and only on the last day did we do any kata.  Then again, it's often the simple stuff that's hardest to do well and it probably helped a lot of people to be able to see Takagi Sensei demonstrate the principles behind the moves.

Special thanks for Norma Sensei for sending me these pics.  And here's one I never expected.....  Takagi Sensei hugging me haha.....

Your Japanese word of the week is...

"hokoku" 報告 which means "report".  Although it generally refers to longer "accounts" of an event, I'm using it in reference to the feedback my students gave me about my 10 weeks teaching them.  And also because I couldn't find a good translation for "feedback" heh....

Anyways, with practicum officially over (including my stint at Science World), I've been enjoying my time off and I'll be sure to update this weekly again.

But for now, back to what the students wrote about me.  I gave them a small form that had 5 statements which they could agree or disagree with and on the back they could write down comments on what I could do to improve as well as what I was doing well.  I haven't compiled the comments but here is their "voting", as it were.

Overall, I'd say it's pretty good.  Obviously you can't please everyone all the time and I certainly had no qualms about dishing out (appropriate) consequences for certain actions (or non-actions), but it's really not that bad.  The last one about making the concepts understandable is the most important to me, and that most of them agree at least somewhat is good to see.  The respectfulness is probably second in terms of importance and again, the overall feedback is pretty good though there are places I can work on there and there.

Anyway, not bad for 10 weeks I think.......  still room to improve but I have the rest of my life for that.  Now the next step is finding a job where I can put these improvements to the test haha....

Oh, and one last thing, seeing that I finished my practicum just in time for a week full of sunshine, I managed get the camera out and take some pics.  Although they are, predictably, of cars haha.....  and a duck...  Enjoy =)