Thursday, October 25, 2007

Charlie Chan

Well, Charlie apparently wasn't kidding back in Letter #12 when he said he wanted to learn martial arts. He started in mid-September. He has a professional interpreter, and on the nights the interpreter can't make it, I interpret for him. I prefer to sit and watch him, though.

The way it works in our association (where I used to teach) is that the kids stay at the white belt (beginner) level for the entire first 13-week course, and then if they sign up for the second course and have learned everything they need to know, they take their first "belt exam" a couple of weeks into the second course to get their yellow belt.

At least, that's how it works with normal kids. I'm learning very quickly not to be so surprised when I find out that Charlie is not normal.

Charlie walks in and makes it very clear he means business. He is very focused, and learns really fast. He practices at home and it is obvious when he goes to class each week that he has been working on what he learned the week before. We normally don't start teaching forms until they've practiced kicks and punches and basic motion for a month; Charlie started his first form the first night. He learned the second and third forms on his second lesson. Took him two weeks to get the third form down; it's a little tougher.

I mentioned something about needing to buy a gi (the white uniform they wear) to the head instructor (who knows me from my teaching days), and he said, "Oh, don't worry, he won't need that until he tests, which won't be until the February session." I snickered. The female black belt who was working with Charlie said something about me needing to get Charlie a gi, and I told her what the head instructor had said. She said, "I'll just have a little word with him." She came back later that night and said that he was going to work with Charlie the following week so that he could evaluate him and decide whether he was ready for the test or not.

Sure enough, last night the head instructor informs me that I need to buy a gi. Charlie is going to take the test on November 14.

Mr. Charlie Chan is feeling very pleased with himself.

Normally a white belt will get a yellow belt on the first test. But now that we all know Charlie is not normal, would anyone care to take bets on whether he will skip a belt, too? If the student isn't quite good enough for the yellow, he gets orange (which is a half-belt). If he does a really outstanding job on the test, better than any of the other students, he gets promoted straight to red. That's what he's aiming for (mainly, I think, because he found out that's what I did, and he has a very competitive streak in him).