yoga-gah-mia-loh?

= 'are you cold?' in Akha language, a phrase that pops up in e cat's mind whenever anyone mentions e word 'yoga'....

just like how e mention of ii3 zu (Akha for water) makes it think of 水 mizu (Japanese for water), despite e slight difference in how e 'zu' is pronounced....

ii3 long1 (Akha for hot water) --> ilang/hilang (lost/disappear in Malay....e cat has forgotten which is e spelling used in Singapore after living with 5 Indonesians for some years - Luthien can kindly correct me?)

นึง nirng3 (one in Thai) --> nirng2 (Teochew for egg)

zir1 ger2 (Akha for less) --> 资格 zi1 ge2 (qualifications in Chinese)

ขนมเบื้อง kha4nom2 beuang1 (Thai snack) --> buang (throw in Malay) --> mental image of Thai street hawkers flinging pieces of khanom beuang all over e place =P

ma1 ger4 (Akha for don't want) --> chao4 mugger (Singlish) --> 小马哥 xiao3 ma3 ge1 restaurant in Mae Salong, Chiang Rai (to be written about another day)

dou4 koon3 (Teochew for hungry) --> tor4 koon (lit. 'sleeping stomach' in Hokkien)

สำคัญ saam2 khan1 (important/significant in Thai) --> Sarmakand (ancient Silk Road city in present day Uzbekistan)

does anyone else make such (silly) associations between e different languages they learn?

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back to yoga-gah-mia-loh....

tried hatha yoga for e first time on Friday. e lesson was in e same building as e cat's lab, so no travelling time involved =) but still, e cat & a new ang moh postdoc from a neighbouring lab were slightly late & missed e intro....if there was any at all!

it was supposedly e first lesson of a beginner's course, but as time went by it appeared that some participants weren't beginners....& we both ended up 'monkey-seeing monkey-doing' whatever was going on as e names of e asanas swirled above our heads. had no idea that we were supposed to bring towels with us for e class....but no problem for a short-legged cat that can hold onto its toes with its front paws =P

kinda deja vu, jumping into yoga just like how e cat jumped into wushu 7 (going on 8) years ago - knowing next to nothing about it, attracted by & enjoying e stretching (a very cat thing *grin*), having a lot of trouble with e terminology (even though e instructor was using English names)....

& kinda interesting to find many of e asanas in that lesson somewhat similar to some of e stretches done while warming up for wushu....& e focus on breathing movements very much like anapana sati in Vipassana meditation....& some of e points to watch out for in terms of posture e same as in wushu....

& it made e cat think about how going (& thinking) through each 细节 (fine detail - position, angle/tilt, degree, depth, direction, strength, grace, 柔 softness, sharpness, continuity, abruptness, etc of fingers, palms, elbows, arms, shoulders, neck, 眼神, head, back, hips, trunk, legs, knees, feet) of each movement & transition of a 50-60+ step wushu taolu seems like a form of training of samadhi (concentration of e mind)....think e baby once said something about how she enjoyed 'losing' herself in a taolu?

anyway, an 'instant' benefit from yoga lesson #1 - a way to 'open up' e less flexible left hip joint that helped a lot for left 外摆 wai4 bai3 in wushu e next day =)

[ filed under: thai1 + japanese1 + 9_lives_2006 ]