Sneaky Posting
*sneak* *sneak* *sneak*
*iai_adept sneaks up to her browser*
*looks around furtively*
*iai_adept selects the "Social Networking" link in her bookmarks and clicks on "LiveJournal"*
*whispering*
hello all. sorry about the lag between postings.
*wonders if this is the longest she has gone without posting since she started posting over 6 months ago*
Not much to post outside of work stuff. Over half my Creativity class flunked their first exam. That was AFTER an almost 10 point curve. The high score was 108% after the curve so it WAS possible to do well on the exam. Jeez! I even posted all the possible questions that I could ask. Granted, it was a lot of questions but that still should have helped the studying. I guess they thought they could just fake their way through the test. Hmph. Bet they're surprised.
It was the same thing last semester. I was hoping at the time that it was a weird class but this suggests it is the type of students the course attracts.
Iai was a little boring for a couple of weeks. Sensei had new students to train (one of them is female - yay!) and the rest of the group was practicing for the shinsa in Japan so I worked on the same kata for pretty much the duration of two classes. Fortunately, it is a pretty cool kata (even with the "tiger steps") and I found that-
*minimizes browser*
*pretends to be working on class stuff*
*opens browser again"*
*continues whispering*
- focusing on one kata for that long really gets you paying attention to the itty bitty details.
Which leads me to a question or two that I was hoping someone could answer. I have been hearing Sensei correcting the opening bow of some of the students by saying "Not like that. Girls bow like that." I haven't looked to see how they were bowing or who was being corrected. I am assuming their hands are close together towards the front of their theighs. I haven't been similarly corrected but it makes me wonder if I should be bowing differently - like a girl - since I AM a girl.
Similarly, we had been sitting in seiza with our knees about a fist's width apart. Now, because of a change to leg posture at the beginning draw in a lot of the kata, we have been told to sit with our knees even further apart. It looks pretty cool - all samauri-like - when the guys do it but I wonder if it is going to look just wrong to the Japanese when a woman does it.
Finally, since I will be the senior student when everyone else goes to Japan next month (!), I will have to make the opening and closing calls. I know what to say but I was curious about what it is I am saying.
When we bow to shinza (apologies for any subsequent spelling errors - haven't seen much of this written out yet), the senior student says
"Shinze ne hai rei!"
When we bow to sensei the senior student says
"Sensei ne rei!"
When we bow to the sword the senior student says
"To Rei!"
My question is - what is the significance of the "ne hai" and the "ne"? Do the words just indicate different levels of formality?
Thanks. Hopefully it won't be so long until I get to talk to you again.
*Scurries away from LJ*
*Quickly minimizes browser*
*Looks around to see if anyone saw her goofing off*
*Goes back to actually working on the computer*
*wink*
*iai_adept sneaks up to her browser*
*looks around furtively*
*iai_adept selects the "Social Networking" link in her bookmarks and clicks on "LiveJournal"*
*whispering*
hello all. sorry about the lag between postings.
*wonders if this is the longest she has gone without posting since she started posting over 6 months ago*
Not much to post outside of work stuff. Over half my Creativity class flunked their first exam. That was AFTER an almost 10 point curve. The high score was 108% after the curve so it WAS possible to do well on the exam. Jeez! I even posted all the possible questions that I could ask. Granted, it was a lot of questions but that still should have helped the studying. I guess they thought they could just fake their way through the test. Hmph. Bet they're surprised.
It was the same thing last semester. I was hoping at the time that it was a weird class but this suggests it is the type of students the course attracts.
Iai was a little boring for a couple of weeks. Sensei had new students to train (one of them is female - yay!) and the rest of the group was practicing for the shinsa in Japan so I worked on the same kata for pretty much the duration of two classes. Fortunately, it is a pretty cool kata (even with the "tiger steps") and I found that-
*minimizes browser*
*pretends to be working on class stuff*
*opens browser again"*
*continues whispering*
- focusing on one kata for that long really gets you paying attention to the itty bitty details.
Which leads me to a question or two that I was hoping someone could answer. I have been hearing Sensei correcting the opening bow of some of the students by saying "Not like that. Girls bow like that." I haven't looked to see how they were bowing or who was being corrected. I am assuming their hands are close together towards the front of their theighs. I haven't been similarly corrected but it makes me wonder if I should be bowing differently - like a girl - since I AM a girl.
Similarly, we had been sitting in seiza with our knees about a fist's width apart. Now, because of a change to leg posture at the beginning draw in a lot of the kata, we have been told to sit with our knees even further apart. It looks pretty cool - all samauri-like - when the guys do it but I wonder if it is going to look just wrong to the Japanese when a woman does it.
Finally, since I will be the senior student when everyone else goes to Japan next month (!), I will have to make the opening and closing calls. I know what to say but I was curious about what it is I am saying.
When we bow to shinza (apologies for any subsequent spelling errors - haven't seen much of this written out yet), the senior student says
"Shinze ne hai rei!"
When we bow to sensei the senior student says
"Sensei ne rei!"
When we bow to the sword the senior student says
"To Rei!"
My question is - what is the significance of the "ne hai" and the "ne"? Do the words just indicate different levels of formality?
Thanks. Hopefully it won't be so long until I get to talk to you again.
*Scurries away from LJ*
*Quickly minimizes browser*
*Looks around to see if anyone saw her goofing off*
*Goes back to actually working on the computer*
*wink*