“Dealing with the frustration of not being able to speak English”
To get more students, I did demonstrations of judo and S.A.W with Ron in many different places.
If there was a martial arts event in Brisbane, we did it at the competition venue. Sometimes at a university, and sometimes at a mall in Brisbane City or China Town.
By doing these things, the number of students gradually increased.
My English was terrible at the time, so at first I was frustrated because I couldn’t express everything I wanted to say when I was teaching.
The only English I used when teaching at the dojo was “Like this.”.
I said “Like this” and expressed myself using my body.
I could use my body when teaching techniques, but when I wanted to explain the spiritual aspects of martial arts in detail, I couldn’t express myself well and felt disappointment in my English.
However, I tried my best to explain with passion even with my poor English.
Then I realised that even if I couldn’t speak the language, if I speak with passion, and the other person is willing to understand and concentrate 100%, they can generally get what I want to get across.
In Zen teachings, there is a word called “Fu Ryu Mon Ji 不立文字（ふりゅうもんじ）”.
It means that “the most important things cannot be conveyed through words or letters.”
In other words, if the person who wants to communicate has a strong desire to communicate, speaks from the heart, and the listener is willing to understand at all costs, they can understand each other even if they do not speak the same language.
If one party is not motivated, even if they speak the same language, they will not be able to understand each other at all.
Then, one student said this.
“You don’t speak English very well, but that’s because you are a true authentic martial artist from Japan. So, don’t worry.”
Things like that gave me confidence.
Furthermore, after every training session at S.A.W, UQ Judo club, and Kyokushin dojo, we would all go to a pub to drink and talk about various things, and my English ability improved little by little.
