# I'm lovin' it



## furtom (Sep 19, 2011)

For the first time in my life, I'm practicing Taiji every day with a group and a teacher and I'm loving it.

I stumbled across this guy quite by accident. I happened to be in the local park when I saw a small group doing Taiji. Nothing at all unusual about that in this Chinese neighborhood. What was unusual was the outstanding Taiji of the instructor. I couldn't believe my eyes.

Since the group was obviously a beginner level, I summoned up the nerve to ask if I could join them. The instructor didn't speak a word of English, but motioned to me to go ahead in a friendly fashion. That was about a month ago and I've been going every day since.

Turns out this guy was a professional taiji instructor in China and recently emigrated to NY to be closer to his daughter, etc. 

In the beginning, I was a little bummed at having to do the Beijing set, but that quickly has subsided. You know what? Any taiji is better than no taiji. :duh:

Besides that, I went early a few weeks ago and I caught the guy doing the old frame, first form. His fajin was fantastic! He told me (translated), oh I have to do that every so often so I don't forget it. My teacher taught me that. Oh, who was your teacher? Chen Zhaoxu. (Holy crap.)

He does demonstrate applications in a very capable way. I've been doing aikido and other martial arts for years and I can't get a hold of this guy.

Recently, I couldn't stand it any more, so I asked him if we could do some push hands. He pushed me around at will for a minute and said I could be in charge of doing that with anyone who wants to after the hour. :uhohh: Fortunately, the rest of them are all so new they have no idea how incapable I am! (Even though I told them so.)

I've been dying to do this for so long, but I really didn't have the extra money to spend on formal classes, most of which I never thought were very good anyway. Each week, I give this teacher a few bucks in appreciation and I practically have to force him to take it. I'm sure he's happy to get paid and I see others doing the same thing, but he certainly is a gentleman.

Good things come to those who wait.

If anyone is in Queens NY and wants to join us in the mornings, send me a message and I'll be happy to give you the details.


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## Xue Sheng (Sep 19, 2011)

furtom said:


> For the first time in my life, I'm practicing Taiji every day with a group and a teacher and I'm loving it.
> 
> I stumbled across this guy quite by accident. I happened to be in the local park when I saw a small group doing Taiji. Nothing at all unusual about that in this Chinese neighborhood. What was unusual was the outstanding Taiji of the instructor. I couldn't believe my eyes.
> 
> ...



Chen Zhaoxu :xtrmshock  You mean Chen Xiaowang's father Chen Zhaoxu (18th generation Chen Family) or some other guy named Chen Zhaoxu?


It has been my experience that the best CMA sifus, Especially IMA and in particularly Taijiquan,  do not advertise and generally do not charge much and are REALLY hard to find. But if you have found one that is REALLY REALLY cool. :bangahead:


Enjoy the training, it sounds like you found a good sifu if he was a student of Chen Zhaoxu 


And nothing wrong with the Beijing form as long as the guy teaching it understands Taijiquan.


And now...... I'm jealous


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## furtom (Sep 19, 2011)

Xue Sheng said:


> Chen Zhaoxu :xtrmshock  You mean Chen Xiaowang's father Chen Zhaoxu (18th generation Chen Family) or some other guy named Chen Zhaoxu?



Well, you caught me. That part kinda got lost in translation. What he said was something like "the elder Chen," Which I believe he meant to distinguish from Chen Xiawang. He's certainly the right age, but it could have meant the uncle. I was so happy and stunned that I was kind of in a swoon, so I didn't press for details. I'm certain he was talking "Chen," however.

Sometime I'll get more info and post it.



> It has been my experience that the best CMA sifus, Especially IMA and in particularly Taijiquan,  do not advertise and generally do not charge much and are REALLY hard to find. But if you have found one that is REALLY REALLY cool. :bangahead:
> 
> 
> Enjoy the training, it sounds like you found a good sifu if he was a student of Chen Zhaoxu
> ...



Hey, thanks! I'm still in a bit of disbelief.

The fact is, despite the fact he knows not one word of English, he's the best taiji teacher I ever had. No question.


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## Xue Sheng (Sep 19, 2011)

furtom said:


> Well, you caught me. That part kinda got lost in translation. What he said was something like "the elder Chen," Which I believe he meant to distinguish from Chen Xiawang. He's certainly the right age, but it could have meant the uncle. I was so happy and stunned that I was kind of in a swoon, so I didn't press for details. I'm certain he was talking "Chen," however.
> 
> Sometime I'll get more info and post it.



Don't press it, if you train with him long enough you will find out




furtom said:


> Hey, thanks! I'm still in a bit of disbelief.
> 
> The fact is, despite the fact he knows not one word of English, he's the best taiji teacher I ever had. No question.



Well since he learned from the Chen family, and they were, at that time, in Henan... I call that a good reason to learn Mandarin


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## furtom (Sep 19, 2011)

Xue Sheng said:


> Don't press it, if you train with him long enough you will find out



Haha. Actually, he's very chatty.

I just asked my wife, who is Chinese, if for sure the expression he used meant the father. First she said yes, then I said, well, the father had a brother who also taught, could it also have been him? She said, yes, could be. Going for the brass ring, I said, well could it have been the grandfather? She said no. An older generation than that would be a different phrase.



> Well since he learned from the Chen family, and they were, at that time, in Henan... I call that a good reason to learn Mandarin



I believe he's from Fujian. He does speak Mandarin, however, since that's what my wife spoke to him. Most older Fujianese don't seem to speak Mandarin, so that fact, plus the fact that he has Duan rank leads me to believe he's educated, though that's just my conjecture.


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## Xue Sheng (Sep 19, 2011)

furtom said:


> Haha. Actually, he's very chatty.
> 
> I just asked my wife, who is Chinese, if for sure the expression he used meant the father. First she said yes, then I said, well, the father had a brother who also taught, could it also have been him? She said, yes, could be. Going for the brass ring, I said, well could it have been the grandfather? She said no. An older generation than that would be a different phrase.



So basically you have found a sifu who was trained by 18th generation Chen family...not bad



furtom said:


> I believe he's from Fujian. He does speak Mandarin, however, since that's what my wife spoke to him. Most older Fujianese don't seem to speak Mandarin, so that fact, plus the fact that he has Duan rank leads me to believe he's educated, though that's just my conjecture.



And Fujian dialect is rather hard to understand for anyone outside of fujian. But regardless the Chen family speaks Mandarin so that is why I said Mandarin becasue if he learned form the Chen family he likely speaks Mandarin.

Is your wife's first dialect Mandarin wife?


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## furtom (Sep 19, 2011)

Xue Sheng said:


> And Fujian dialect is rather hard to understand for anyone outside of fujian. But regardless the Chen family speaks Mandarin so that is why I said Mandarin becasue if he learned form the Chen family he likely speaks Mandarin.



Correct on all counts.



> Is your wife's first dialect Mandarin wife?



Yes. She's from the northern part of Anhui, which is a quasi-Mandarin area. Of course, they have their own dialect, but they are considered pretty close to Mandarin.

She also does Beijing taiji as she graduated from Beijing Sports University, where it's required curriculum. That is mostly wushu, i.e. performance as opposed to martial. When I married her, I thought I was getting a martial artist. She could care less about such things. Ha! A much better description of what she did would be "athletic." Her specialty was the long jump.

She spent several years in Guangzhou and has a functional command of Cantonese, but she can't understand the Fujian dialect. In this neighborhood, where we have our share of Fujianese, it seems anyone younger than, oh say 40, speak Mandarin fine, but older than that, it gets spotty. For example, she and the old lady upstairs just nod to each other, but she can speak to her son fine.


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## Xue Sheng (Sep 19, 2011)

furtom said:


> Correct on all counts.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



What little Mandarin I know can and has confused a Chinesespeaker or two... after I am done talkikng they tend to stare at me...to which I generally say I'msorry my Mandarin is not so good...then they say...no...that's not it, I'm justwondering why an American is speaking with a Beijing accent  My wife is a Beijingren


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## furtom (Sep 19, 2011)

Xue Sheng said:


> What little Mandarin I know can and has confused a Chinesespeaker or two... after I am done talkikng they tend to stare at me...to which I generally say I'msorry my Mandarin is not so good...then they say...no...that's not it, I'm justwondering why an American is speaking with a Beijing accent  My wife is a Beijingren



Well, you are doing better than me as I don't have an identifiable accent.  (Except laowei)

From what I understand, my wife speaks with one, too, as she was educated in Beijing. Accents are quite important to the Chinese, who judge a person instantly in a dozen ways from them, as it seems you already know.


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## Xue Sheng (Sep 19, 2011)

furtom said:


> Well, you are doing better than me as I don't have an identifiable accent.  (Except laowei)
> 
> From what I understand, my wife speaks with one, too, as she was educated in Beijing. Accents are quite important to the Chinese, who judge a person instantly in a dozen ways from them, as it seems you already know.



From what I can tell form the Beijingren I know...everyone who speaks mandarin has an accent...unless they're from Beijing


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## furtom (Sep 19, 2011)

Xue Sheng said:


> From what I can tell form the Beijingren I know...everyone who speaks mandarin has an accent...unless they're from Beijing



Well, that just made my point for me...


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