Drunken Monkey

ahhhh, software engineer.... explains the lack of girls.

well, when you see that term used in the chinese styles, it is actually talking about body structure, not stance. which brings up a little question. what is more important: body structure or stance?

i'm not sure if it'll be the same for japanese/okinawan. the thing with the chinese martial arts is that they were originally devised using the terminology of the belief system in mind. i mean, as someone else pointed out, the fighting arts was just one of the virtues of a scholar. as such, the poetry, history, writing skills, fighting skills, medicine etc etc all use the same set of terms, so to speak. these terms are so ingrained into the chinese culture that unless you were born part of it and exposed to it as a way of life, a lot of it you simply won't understand as instinctively as a 'native' would. i'm not saying you can't learn it, it just won't be the same.

i mean that the chinese used was unchanged since the translation however many hundreds of years ago.

......did i mention how charming i was? charming and witty and intelligent? y'know, can't be too careful with details.... after all, god lies in the details..... just think, you've got another three odd weeks of this to put up with!

it is a buddhist text. it's the one that goes 'something something golden light'.....

kinda. the majority of the mandarin dialects are easily understood by each other. cantonese is vastly different. it almost does stand out as a separate language. (and i think in some circles, it is regarded as a separate language) i mean, in spoken form, the structure is totally different to the others which share the same grammatical structure as mandarin. and well, that last point you make about it being one of many dialogues/dialects doesn't mean much when what i learn comes from a cantonese speaking place.

hey i am nice! don't let my gruff exterior fool you. beneath this deeply handsome yet intimidating exterior lies a heart of gold. but i have to admit, it is rather small...... as for the expense account, you pay for things now and keep all receipts for me and i'll pay you back..... when i get time.... later.... heh. my heart might be small but my generosity is even smaller! but um, yeah.... congrats. always something good to say.

my reading is a bit hit and miss.... i think speaking the language helps more than being able to read it, especially something like chinese/cantonese. what it means is that less time is spent trying to explain things to me. well, not that it makes a difference seeing as most people in my group speak the language.... but um, it doesn't mean i don't have to practice..... unfortunately, i am too lazy for my own good.

engineering? mechanical? structural? civic? hmm, if it's the building variety, go hang around the architecture department..... lots of girls.... well, around here there are.

well, you get my point as to why shaolin-do doesn't 'work' and jeet kune do does.

why are you asking me? you're the one who said it came from an old chinese term. and the gum gong ging isn't a book. it's a long scripture. it might actually have a given english name but i don't know it. i'm not entirely sure why you're looking for it?

i kinda understand the reasons behind the 'odd' name..... i mean, think back to what it was like in those days. everyone needed a 'spin' to draw new students and keep things going strong. from what i'm hearing here, it is good stuff, right?

i'm offended because you claim that i am a boastful show off. all i am doing is stating the things that i know and presenting my explainations as to where they come from. if anything you are the one here who is pretentious. i don't know. maybe its cos most of the people here know me and you are still getting used to the way i post things. one thing i do know is that i'm not very patient. i don't like waffling to make a point. i believe that concise and precise makes the easiest answers for most people to understand. you might've noticed that the way i type my posts is to help keep things clear. if i come across as being a bit curt then i apologise but i rather be mistaken than misunderstood.

'jeet kune do' is bruce's romanisation of cantonese. the 'do' is the cantonese of 'dao' or 'tao' (which is the mandarin) meaning 'way'. the book "the tao of jeet kune do" might be better understood as "the tao of jeet kune do" meaning the 'way of the way of the intercepting fist' shaolin-do doesn't work grammatically because even if it the chinese 'do', shaolin (buddhist) and the 'do' (as in 'tao') do not mix. it equates to having a catholic-jew.

i'm pretentious? and you are not? positioning yourself as the all knowing entity here, 'testing' us with your questions that you already know the answers to...... but why am i responding to this obvious baiting.

...not really 'self discovery'. i'm lucky to have friends who have martial arts background in different styles. it gives me the opportunity to actually train against real karate, kick-boxing, boxing and tkd as opposed to doing drills against 'approximations' of what those guys might do.

...well, i'm just being pedantic about the actual words and grammer used..... point is, they never called them 'war arts' originally. martial art is a westerm term that closest fits them as they are, not the origianl terms. i still saying 'fighting arts' is more accurate.

samurahi um, can you provide the characters for this? i can't for the life of me think of what the chinese could be....

wing chun isn't just about being able to 'do the moves'......

from the ground up it still makes me smile when i see someone write this.... sorry. private joke..... i think some people here know what i'm talking about.

......but the chinese/japanese terms for them don't mean 'warlike'. more often than not, they refer to hand/fist skills. what they call war-arts/skills are very specifically to do with war.

not sure about tang so do but there's nothing 'wrong' with the names of the other two. unlike shaolin-do, which is wrong on more than one count. anyway. there's a wonderful thing called google. that way you can read about them and make up your own mind.

i think the thing here is that a lot of people read the words 'grading' and 'present' in the same sentence and jumped to the wrong impliactions without thinking through the situation as presented.

whats wrong with a gift at ANY time could've sworn that was what i was saying.... i still can't see why shouldn't/can't she get the instructor a present as a sign of appreciation of the hard work he has put it?