A word that no Taiji practitioner should mispronounce

This video clarifies a frequent misunderstanding arising from the incorrect pronunciation of Chi (as in T’ai Chi).

[@rcoldman]

Yes! I met someone who claimed to be a long-time practitioner of "Tibetan tai chi". From the start I was wondering why they'd call it that if it was Tibetan. Why not give it a Tibetan name? Anyway, I visited the school's website where they were writing about it as if the "chi" in Wade-Giles t'ai chi ch'uan was the same as the pinyin "qi" in qigong. I remarked that any "master" who could make this mistake could not be relied upon to deliver factual information on the subject.; Our conversation ground to a halt over this difference of "opinion".

[@NicoVeenkamp]

I learned the difference between the two to see it as the difference between saying Joe and check.

[@nycjake3104]

This discussion may be helpful for those who speak Chinese and are aware of Tai Chi Chan and its principles. Few people and few practitioners - Chinese people and people who are not Chinese included - understand the principles of Tai Chi Chan. IMHO most practitioners practice form and lack substance. Moreover, those few teachers who know are only teaching to their indoor students.

[@OldJong]

Interesting! And what about Tao or Dao?

[@NicoVeenkamp]

The difference in transliteration. The old system wades gilles used the T, the PinYin translation is using D. I understand that the actual Chinese is more like starting to say thumb, so it is in between T and D. But as usual this all very much depends on the dialect or region, that the person speaking, is coming from. That is why they always ask to write it down when they don’t understand the spoken words. That is also why most chines tv programs are subtitled. Cantonese and Mandarin are two different languages but written the same. So if you speak mandarin and can’t understand the Cantonese that is spoken , you can still understand through the subtitles.

[@OldJong]

@@NicoVeenkamp Thank you!