cybermaai
5th July 2003, 10:05
I'm not sure if this is the best place for this post, but here goes...
Here in Japan, I am currently training in a naginata class which luckily includes only the sensei, a few high ranking students and myself. (This is outside the usual lesson taught in the evening, which I can't attend.) The atmosphere is casual, but perhaps a little too much so. Recently, I find that I am having problems with the methodology of teaching. I am often paired with the senior-most student (the teacher's daughter) who gives me much needed correction, yet before I can try the corrections, she will immediately turn to the sensei, repeat what was said to me, as if to confirm what was said. (I'm not even going to go into mother-daughter psychological dynamics here.) I find myself listening to the same points twice, going on five minutes or so, rather than being able to retry the waza. I feel that I end up listening more than training. To make matters worse, occasionally they will be talking about two contradictory points. This latter situation happened to me years ago when I was first starting in iaido. Again in a semi-private lesson setting, my official teacher and a senior student would comment on completely different things simultaneously, and often contradict each other. I wound up eventually going to another dojo, taught by a retired schoolteacher, who had both martial and education skills.
Back to naginata, I will be told to correct a hand mistake, and when I try again, I am scolded about my feet. Like any beginner, when I focus on one part of the body , I tend to forget the rest. Here, to be fair, I could be just a bad student, wanting to focus on a single thing at a time, rather than listen to instruction. However, I am an English teacher myself. When I am working on verbs, I may let a prepositional mistake go by until the student "gets" what I am trying to teach about verbs. Then I will go back to the other area. In anything, I'd like to focus on a single thing at a time.
In other budo I've studied, I haven't had any problems like this. I listen carefully to what the teacher tells me. And if two students' advice compliments each other, no problem. But this situation, with a well meaning person (senior student) who has the skill, yet doesn't seem to know how to verbalize that skill, is incredibly frustrating.
With nine years in Japan, I am familiar with Japanese teaching methods, and in the various forms they may take. Nor is Japanese communication is an issue at this point.
Has anyone had similar experiences? Am I just being unreceptive?
I'd also like to ask the teachers out there if there is a reason to correct two points simultaneously. Do you find yourself butting heads with senior students, however well-meaning they are?
Thank you.
Here in Japan, I am currently training in a naginata class which luckily includes only the sensei, a few high ranking students and myself. (This is outside the usual lesson taught in the evening, which I can't attend.) The atmosphere is casual, but perhaps a little too much so. Recently, I find that I am having problems with the methodology of teaching. I am often paired with the senior-most student (the teacher's daughter) who gives me much needed correction, yet before I can try the corrections, she will immediately turn to the sensei, repeat what was said to me, as if to confirm what was said. (I'm not even going to go into mother-daughter psychological dynamics here.) I find myself listening to the same points twice, going on five minutes or so, rather than being able to retry the waza. I feel that I end up listening more than training. To make matters worse, occasionally they will be talking about two contradictory points. This latter situation happened to me years ago when I was first starting in iaido. Again in a semi-private lesson setting, my official teacher and a senior student would comment on completely different things simultaneously, and often contradict each other. I wound up eventually going to another dojo, taught by a retired schoolteacher, who had both martial and education skills.
Back to naginata, I will be told to correct a hand mistake, and when I try again, I am scolded about my feet. Like any beginner, when I focus on one part of the body , I tend to forget the rest. Here, to be fair, I could be just a bad student, wanting to focus on a single thing at a time, rather than listen to instruction. However, I am an English teacher myself. When I am working on verbs, I may let a prepositional mistake go by until the student "gets" what I am trying to teach about verbs. Then I will go back to the other area. In anything, I'd like to focus on a single thing at a time.
In other budo I've studied, I haven't had any problems like this. I listen carefully to what the teacher tells me. And if two students' advice compliments each other, no problem. But this situation, with a well meaning person (senior student) who has the skill, yet doesn't seem to know how to verbalize that skill, is incredibly frustrating.
With nine years in Japan, I am familiar with Japanese teaching methods, and in the various forms they may take. Nor is Japanese communication is an issue at this point.
Has anyone had similar experiences? Am I just being unreceptive?
I'd also like to ask the teachers out there if there is a reason to correct two points simultaneously. Do you find yourself butting heads with senior students, however well-meaning they are?
Thank you.