Chennpug

Thank you, iamrushman! I come from a family of teachers, so education has always been at the forefront of my life...even now, when I've finished (officially...not truly) mine.

Ireland is the place for me! My great-grandfather came to the US from Ireland, and he left behind 12 (at least) siblings, so I'm sure I have family over there. Wouldn't that be amazing, to discover relatives in a country you've always wanted to visit? I'd like to make a tour of Europe a few times in my life....especially Britain and France (put that French minor to some good use!) for a while. And of course I MUST visit Australia....preferably while single. I hear the sheila:bloke ratio is about 1:3 ....can't beat those odds, eh?

Hiya Froggy! Thanks! That's a great idea Lorraine...I'll be sure to let you know if I manage to start up again. I'd have to buy a new gi, though...my little sister thought it would be a great idea to paint my grandparents' barn a nice chocolate brown in my gi pants while I was away at college. Oh, those zany kids. *cough* Anyhoo....

Here goes nothing! All righty...well, I just graduated from college with a BA in English and a minor in French. I've studied every language I could manage while taking heavy loads of work, so I've dabbled in Japanese, but my studies in Ancient Hebrew have sort of muddled those waters. I began a website a few months back giving advice of every sort ( http://committed.to/leandrasadvice ) and I've had a lot of fun learning about html and tables and....well, a whole new language, really. As for my martial arts training, I took a few years of Isshinryu karate in high school and managed to attain 7th Kyu (orange belt) before my schoolwork forced me to quit. Now that I'm back in my hometown, I might be starting it up again....depending on those fussy little details like time and money. This site seems to be pretty interesting...I think I'll hang around and bug you guys for a while. _________________ "Education: The path where one travels from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty." --Mark Twain [ This Message was edited by: Chennpug on 2001-06-02 03:26 ]

Lorraine, I'm curious about the ranks used in your dojo. I myself studied Isshinryu, and almost everyone I've spoken to who studied it has used a different order/color combos for the belts. Either it's fairly non-standard for the style, or perhaps my sensei liked having the whole rainbow! Here's how she organized our dojo: White, Yellow, Orange, Blue, Green, 2 Brown, and the many degrees of Black. And we had to earn our white belt--it wasn't given to us. I'm just curious how things work over there.

So what do you guys think about the self-defense classes that some women/older people take? Should they take karate instead? My sensei hosted a self-defense class, once a week for a month, and my mom attended. She and I practiced together, and what I found was that she was concentrating so hard on remembering the moves that she forgot the basics. Had she been attacked for real, she would have broken her arm trying to block, or hurt herself even worse. I wonder sometimes if it's possible to make people too confident by giving them training like this. If my mom were attacked, knowing her she'd try to fight the guy off (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but she'd hurt herself in the process, perhaps worse than the attacker would have if she'd just given up her purse, or whatever. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against self-defense training, but where's the line?

I took several years of Isshinryu in high school, and I loved it. Oh sure, it was hard work, but I'm short, small, and a girl, and having the ability (even if I wouldn't do it anywhere but the dojo) to throw big guys to the ground really puts a swing into your step. Maybe a different type of karate (or even judo) would be better for my body type, but it's also a great way to work out frustrations (if you have access to a punching bag). I'm thinking of taking it up again, but I'd like to try a different style. Has anyone tried switching styles? Is it terribly difficult?