Does any one know if there is an english taught self defense club in china or japan?

Question

I want to know if there are monks/martial arts experts (or companies in the likes of china, japan) that take people from abroad and train them to a high standard continuiously, as in live and breathe martial arts for the next year or two to be the best possible within that period of time? I saw a program on the discovery channel not long ago and it showed a temple where chinese kids would live and get trained in kung fu i think it was day in day out! i want to go abroad and do that in china, is that possible???

Answer 1

It all depends on where you're looking to study at.

Some places will teach in English, but the larger majority will not simply for one reason...they don't think they should due to cultural respect.

I know for example, whenever I fly abroad to train at Soke Hatsumi's Honbu, he will not teach in English period. He will on occasion have a translator, but generally it's Japanese only.

Mainly, the English language is too literal to express what he's trying to explain....and again, it's all about cultural respect.

Unlike the west, the east is big on learning their language if you're going to be there....and I agree with them 100%.

Answer 2

First off you don't need to know the language of the country you're teaching in. These days classes are taught almost entirely in the Target Language which means you introduce, explain and practice in English. This is called Full Immersion and essentially you are trying to put the student in the same kind of linguistic environment that a native speaker learns their own language. In fact, it does the students good. To communicate they MUST speak English and that's what it's all about. So the bottom line is that you should choose where to go on your preferences rather than a language you can learn. To teach in both countries you normally need a BA degree and a TEFL/TESOL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate to get a visa. However in China you can sometimes get away with less although it's a bit more hassle to find work.

Answer 3

You said at the end that you wanted to go to China, but the question specified China or Japan, which means it doesn't sound like you have a specific style in mind, so I'll throw in a third option: South Korea.

Sang Rok World Taekwondo caters exclusively to foreigners. I've never trained there, so I don't know how the program is. I know that some of the universities here also have programs (brief "camps") that foreigners can come to, but I've been told it's easier if you have a Korean friend who can help get you in.

I work in South Korea, and train at a gym where I am the only foreigner. I don't speak much Korean (though I am slowly, slowly learning) and my Kwanjangnim doesn't speak much English, but our personalities and desire to communicate click really well and we do just fine. I learn not only about the martial aspects, but also the art aspects. It IS possible to learn in a foreign language, but it depends very much on you.

I had to briefly train at another gym where the Kwanjangnim and Sabumnim spoke quite a bit of English and while that was helpful to a degree, it also made me feel more isolated from the other students, being singled out in English.

Frankly, I didn't move to Korea to hang out with other foreigners, so I wouldn't want to train at a gym that had a lot of foreigners. You need to consider exactly what you want to get out of living in a foreign country. You can live very easily in a foreign country without ever getting to actually live IN that country, if that makes sense.

As a side note, it sounds like you're romanticizing Asia to me (having been in China, South Korea, and Japan).

Answer 4

Have you thought about going to thailand to train in a mauy thai camp? There are loads of training camps and they are usually visited by a lot of europeans and I'm sure the english there is good enough. No one will doubt the effectiveness of mauy thai as a means of self defence i dont think.

Training is very good and hard there which can include jogging km's, sparring, clinching, pad work, bag work and sparring every day.

Try http://www.ingrampromotion.com/ or find some other well known thai clubs.

If you are set on training in China visit:-

http://www.shaolinkungfu.com.cn/newEbiz1/EbizPortalFG/portal/html/index.html

Answer 5

I wonder if Japanese rugby clubs have horse brasses hanging on the walls of the club room and serve John Smith bitter, no it doesn't answer your question but wonder how much is lost in the transportation of the art from the original country. Sure people would be delighted to meet you just to practise their English

Answer 6

I am sure there are lots of schools that will accept western Students. Read Angry White Pyjamas by Robert Twigger. This tells of his intense year on the Tokyo Riot Police Aikido course. On that course there was a mixture of western and Japanese instructors.