Life In 19x19

RobertJasiek wrote:

odnihs wrote:good at push-ups.

What's that?

Liegestütze

What the heck - do pupils make physical exercises...?!?

RobertJasiek wrote:What the heck - do pupils make physical exercises...?!?

It is a reference to military discipline, where push-ups are a common light punishment on the spot for small infractions or failures. So it is used here, I presume, to indicate that Mingjiu is a very strict teacher, who does not go easy on his pupils.

It would indeed be interesting to see an _online_ teacher with so much influence that his/her students would actually do pushups.

He just need his student to set up a webcam

Javaness2 wrote:

John Fairbairn wrote:

Mingjiu is the meanest.

To me this means he is the most miserly, but of course the poster's location tells me it's American so I can put that meaning on hold. However, that doesn't help me much. I can understand what a "grounded" American kid means when he says, "Mom, don't be mean", but in this case I am totally at sea. What does it mean, and what are the cues that guide you to the intended meaning? I assume the go context and normal respect for pros is one cue, so the meaning is presumably (ironically?) good - but that doesn't help me much either.

Mingjiu is severe. He tells people their moves are stupid when they are stupid. If you ask him a question you could answer yourself if you thought for 5 minutes, he tells you to go and think about it yourself for 5 minutes. I think that this is really quite useful in a teacher.

What brand of 5 dan is the original poster though?

I assume Jiang tempers his criticism so it is relative to what the student could reasonably be expected to know. Otherwise it could be very frustrating for the student. Imagine a ddk player being told angrily every other move or so how stupid their moves are.

tj86430 wrote:It would indeed be interesting to see an _online_ teacher with so much influence that his/her students would actually do pushups.

I don't know about online, but he has done it in person.

I was not his student, but I've heard from others.

gowan wrote:As for the meaning of "mean" to me, a senior citizen, it means "harsh" or "sadistic", or possibly "unsympathetic" or "unforgiving".

On the other hand, he could be hinting at his textural ruggedness, comparable to "What a mean steak!"

gowan wrote: I assume Jiang tempers his criticism so it is relative to what the student could reasonably be expected to know. Otherwise it could be very frustrating for the student. Imagine a ddk player being told angrily every other move or so how stupid their moves are.

He knows and in fact has a good humor about it. He can say, "ah, this is hard for you" it a few different ways and you know whether he means that something is beyond you versus this is something that should by totally within your abilities and you're not playing up to them. If you are getting lessons online, make sure you have audio so you can hear his booming voice. (I am actually not sure if he requires that, but he might because I haven't seen him type much.) This is important for improvement.

Rather than mean, I would say disciplined. For example, when he presents a life&death problem, he will not just give you something with a clear goal. Instead he will say, "Don't show me moves! First tell me the result." Then if you say, "black can kill" he'll press: "how many ways can black kill?"

He's not very interested into getting far into your games once they start becoming nonsense for one side or another, so I think you have to be pretty strong to get far into the middle game in a review with him. For this reason, I think he is a better teacher for dans than for kyus. Also, Mingjiu likes to show a lot of josekis, many of which are not in the books, so I think it would help if you are into learning that sort of thing.

Another successful recent student of his is Calvin Sun (AGA rating 7.7), who was a youth junior and senior rep in the World Youth Goe Championship for a few years in a row and was a 3-time Redmond Cup winner.

Are there japanese speaking online pro teachers?

Best Tapir

tapir wrote:Are there japanese speaking online pro teachers?

Best Tapir

I think a number of Nihon Ki-in pros teach online. You many be able to find them on the Nihon Ki-in website: http://www.nihonkiin.or.jp I think they mostly use the Nihon Ki-in's server called Yuugen no Ma.

tapir wrote:Are there japanese speaking online pro teachers?

Best Tapir

Maeda Ryo teaches on KGS Plus. You can try to reach him and see if he wants to teach online.

snorri wrote:
Another successful recent student of his is Calvin Sun (AGA rating 7.7), who was a youth junior and senior rep in the World Youth Goe Championship for a few years in a row and was a 3-time Redmond Cup winner.

Another noticeable student of his is Aaron Ye (AGA 5d now) who just won his first junior Redmond Cup at the age of 9 and placed 4th in the WYGC junior division.