Kung Fu is the greatest!

[bladesaint]

We don't tend to get Andy "slumming" around our parts very often, so maybe we should tell the story for him, and then he can come in and correct us if we're wrong.

If I remember correctly, Andy was in an ornery mood in class once and he refused to tap out and eventually allowed his instructor to choke him out.  When he woke up, the instructor bellowed at him, "You should have tapped!" (Shoodavetapped).

Is this pretty close, Alcatraz?  (I do love that story).

 Thats could have been my screenname as well. I should have tapped during my jujitsu match back in '97 in North carolina. I was winning but got caught in an inverted armbar. I was too pigheaded to quit before I heard the sounds of ligaments popping. Wierd, sounded like a musical string instrument. Would have saved me years of grief and I'd be able to hold a cellphone to my head normally today.

[BlueDragon1981]

The Chinese arts have specific names, like Baguazhang or Taichiquan.

Kung fu can refer to any discipline.

Sifuphil, I'd love to hear your views on this.

I would have to agree with this from my many hours of research....

[Rickster]

Kung fu in Chinese characters:

功夫

As I understand it, this phrase does not refer to martial arts.

Here's what the two characters mean.

功 - Composed of two radicals. Roughly, the first means "work" and the second means "strength".

夫 - Also composed of two radicals. The first means "person". The second means "hairpin". The meaning, a person wearing a hairpin, roughly means adult.

So, together, the characters mean an adult who has achieved skill at doing something through diligent effort. Linguistically, the term is not inherently related to the martial arts.

The Chinese arts have specific names, like Baguazhang or Taichiquan.

Kung fu can refer to any discipline.

Sifuphil, I'd love to hear your views on this.

I absolutely agree. The term is a misnomer first mentioned in the journals of a Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, 1700's, whom spent over 40 years in China, at the Chinese Court. It was his understanding when Chinese martial artists doing a demonstration that he asked one what it was he was doing. His reply was "Gung Fu", which was a somewhat Chinese inner joke that a European could not understand.

A good segment of film nearly depicting this is in the classic film; 55 Days at Peking (1963) Maj. Matt Lewis (Charlton Heston), Baroness Natalie Ivanoff (Ava Gardner), Sir Arthur Robertson (David Niven)

Though it is now commonly accepted to relate to martial arts, a lot of venerable Chinese Chuan Fa masters ignore the term.

[Waxahachie]

We don't tend to get Andy "slumming" around our parts very often, so maybe we should tell the story for him, and then he can come in and correct us if we're wrong.

If I remember correctly, Andy was in an ornery mood in class once and he refused to tap out and eventually allowed his instructor to choke him out.  When he woke up, the instructor bellowed at him, "You should have tapped!" (Shoodavetapped).

Is this pretty close, Alcatraz?  (I do love that story).

[supergroup7]

Yes.. please tell the "Shoodavetapped" story again, so that new members to the board can share in it.

[Alcatraz]

Oh, sure, Dave - just toss out a 900-pound gorilla and say "Play nice"! 

Like any other style, it's a means to an end. If you take a "hankering" to it and it seems to fit you, then it might be "your" art.

Me? I'm a pacifist. 

Good to see you again, Bro! 

Phil,

It wasn't Dave who asked this question. It was Andy.

Do we need to explain the Shoo davetapped (Should Have Tapped) story again??? 

[BajiBrad]

I'll post a step by step after I set it up again myself 

[BajiBrad]

Basically, to do Chinese characters you have to go into a languages settings and add Chinese.  Then you type in the pinyin and get a choice of different characters (mandarin Chinese has 4 tones to give different meanings).

[Bluecrab]

Hi Tracy,

Maybe, but I've never tried it. I've used a couple of the free online translation engines, like Babelfish, to translate blocks of text from Korean websites. But the results have not been good.

Also, I have no idea how to input Chinese characters from the keyboard - only Korean. Korean is easy because its alphabet only has about 40 characters, so it has its own keyboard map, similar to Enlgish's "qwerty" map. Chinese, on the other hand, uses literally thousands of characters. I don't know how they type Chinese into a keyboard.

[bogirl]

Hi Wax,

I copied those particular characters from a pdf document I've had for years. But, you can also enter Asian characters straight from your keyboard if you have your computer configured to do that, and have installed all of the character font sets. For example, I can type in Korean straight from my keyboard just by changing a setting.

I used to have an e-mail that explained how to set up your system to do this... I'll see if I can dig it up.

That sounds pretty cool!  However, if you get something sent to you in Asian characters can your computer translate it back?

[Waxahachie]

No worries, Howard, I don't know a word of Chinese or Korean so there's no point in configuring my keyboard for it.   

[Bluecrab]

Hi Wax,

I copied those particular characters from a pdf document I've had for years. But, you can also enter Asian characters straight from your keyboard if you have your computer configured to do that, and have installed all of the character font sets. For example, I can type in Korean straight from my keyboard just by changing a setting.

I used to have an e-mail that explained how to set up your system to do this... I'll see if I can dig it up.

[Waxahachie]

Wow, Howard, you can post Chinese characters now???!!!!

How did you do that?

[shudokan-RN]

I Love you Kung Fu Panda !!!

[Bluecrab]

Kung fu in Chinese characters:

功夫

As I understand it, this phrase does not refer to martial arts.

Here's what the two characters mean.

功 - Composed of two radicals. Roughly, the first means "work" and the second means "strength".

夫 - Also composed of two radicals. The first means "person". The second means "hairpin". The meaning, a person wearing a hairpin, roughly means adult.

So, together, the characters mean an adult who has achieved skill at doing something through diligent effort. Linguistically, the term is not inherently related to the martial arts.

The Chinese arts have specific names, like Baguazhang or Taichiquan.

Kung fu can refer to any discipline.

Sifuphil, I'd love to hear your views on this.