Hot Yoga

[emily_in_nc]

That must be really hard, Emily.

Do you mean the language thing? Yes, it's challenging but good for my brain since I am not working -- keeps me on my toes. :-) Before I ever dared to go, I studied up on body parts as well as yoga terms in general in Spanish, and at first I had to really watch others in the practice to make sure I was doing what the instructor said. But now I get about 80% of what he says and from context can figure out most of the rest of it. Now, on the few occasions where they brought in a different instructor, it is much harder since they don't always use the same expressions as Marco!

What is still hard is when he goes into an aside, normally after practice but occasionally during, and starts explaining something or philosophizing. It's the "off script" stuff and the casual socializing that is difficult. I've been studying Spanish for awhile, but it is a slow process. The normal cues for poses and such are repetitive and tend to be spoken more slowly, so are much easier to master.

[Crankin]

Yes, I am OK with rudimentary, tourist Spanish. But, whenever I need a verb (or a different tense) I cannot answer or participate in a conversation! I can usually understand through context. DH and I really want to do an immersion program for at least 2-3 weeks. But, at least I can go into a store and get by in Spanish. When we rented the apt. in Italy, I was totally illiterate and did not understand that you need to weigh your produce and put a price on it before you bring it to the cashier. The cashier started yelling at me, so i just said "No parlo Italiano," and she took me by the hand and showed me. I felt horrible. Lots of profuse "Grazie, Signora," from me!

[emily_in_nc]

Yes, I am OK with rudimentary, tourist Spanish. But, whenever I need a verb (or a different tense) I cannot answer or participate in a conversation! I can usually understand through context. DH and I really want to do an immersion program for at least 2-3 weeks. But, at least I can go into a store and get by in Spanish. When we rented the apt. in Italy, I was totally illiterate and did not understand that you need to weigh your produce and put a price on it before you bring it to the cashier. The cashier started yelling at me, so i just said "No parlo Italiano," and she took me by the hand and showed me. I felt horrible. Lots of profuse "Grazie, Signora," from me!

I totally get that! There is nothing like being treated like a six year old to make one feel humbled. It has happened to me on quite a few occasions here in Mexico, and it is tough. I pride myself on being competent and on top of things most of the time, but not speaking the language well has a way of making my self-esteem take a real hit. OTOH, on the rare occasions when I do manage to understand, answer a question, whatever, I feel great! I've learned SO much since beginning with ZIP Spanish (I studied French in high school), but the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. Verb tenses, yeah, forget it. I am lucky if I just know the verb at all.

Another thing that makes it even worse for me is that I have pretty high levels of social anxiety. So while I can do my online Spanish classes by myself with a reasonable degree of proficiency, put me into a situation where I'm dealing with actual human beings, and I turn into a mono-syllabic stutterer. This makes living here more of a challenge to me than it might be to someone who is not so anxious in social situations.

[Crankin]

It's a good way to understand how immigrants feel. Humbled isn't a strong enough word! I did fine in Spain, for what i needed to do (even was able to go into a drugstore and get the woman to understand I needed sun block) and to point out an issue with the clerk in a store where DH was buying jeans. But, I want to be able to converse. I am good with languages, but after so many years of not using Spanish, which I did in Florida and AZ, I've lost a lot. I used to go to meetings with parents who needed a translator when I was teaching; I would be able to follow his conversation with the parents and I would want to say something, but I couldn't. It usually came out as a 2 word six year old type statement. Of course, they were thrilled that a teacher was trying to speak to them in Spanish, but it made me feel stupid. And forget the Portuguese speaking parents. After 8 years of teaching in a district with a large Brazilian population, the only word I learned was obrigado.
Back to yoga.

[emily_in_nc]

But, I want to be able to converse.

YES! This is me. And you're right, this is very eye-opening re. what immigrants to the US or any country experience.

As for yoga, I haven't been since last Friday since we took a short trip Mon-Wed (and I go MWF), so I'm looking forward to going back tomorrow and sweating it out. Whenever I take even a week off, I get sore again, so I am sure I will!

[rocknrollgirl]

YES! This is me. And you're right, this is very eye-opening re. what immigrants to the US or any country experience.

As for yoga, I haven't been since last Friday since we took a short trip Mon-Wed (and I go MWF), so I'm looking forward to going back tomorrow and sweating it out. Whenever I take even a week off, I get sore again, so I am sure I will!

Hola!

Just kidding. I went to a special class last night just on pranayama. It is part of the studio's community program. It was pretty cool. Not a lot of "yoga" yoga, but i learned a ton of cool stuff beyond 3 part breath.

[emily_in_nc]

Hola!

Just kidding. I went to a special class last night just on pranayama. It is part of the studio's community program. It was pretty cool. Not a lot of "yoga" yoga, but i learned a ton of cool stuff beyond 3 part breath.

That sounds great! My maestro is really, really big on pranayama. We do a lot of different breath patterns in our practice. Today, when we were doing one of the patterns right before savasana, sweat was dripping down my face, over my lips, down my back, down my chest, and it was all I could do to sit, eyes closed, without wiping it off. It was VERY hot and humid today, well above average for late October here, and I was dying. I read an article in the past couple of days about why you sweat more immediately after finishing exercising than during the exercise, and I guess that's what applied here, since I seemed to sweat even more during the "relaxing" part of the practice at the end.

How someone could voluntarily subject themselves to bikram (hot) yoga, I don't know!