MODERN ARNIS REMY P. PRESAS INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION

Just wanted to see how other Schools teach the Terminology and History of Modern Arnis. We include a Terminology and History portion as part of each test for rank.
Questions like, "What city did Professor Presas open his first Modern Arnis School in and what year?" And, "What do the three stars in the Philippine flag represent?"
I try to share the culture and history to our students to be more informed about Modern Arnis and the Philippine Culture. And we use the terminology in class as well as Opening and Closing the class in Tagalog. I try to input Tagolog as much as I can. Thank God I have a Filipino student that corrects my pronunciation. I am learning as well as the students.
I try to honor what the Professor and Remy jr. have said before, promoting Modern Arnis and the Filipino culture. I am no expert, but we do our best.
Our rank structure is based on MARPPIO's such as: Palo-Palo Art of strikes(Kamao-Fists and Sipa-Kicks), Anyos art of forms, Yantok art of single cane, Pagsawali art of double cane, etc. This also keeps the language alive in everything we teach. Instead of saying Kicking and Punching or Single Stick or Double Stick, we say Palo-palo, Yantok and Pagsawali when refering to these. It may not be alot, but we do try to input the language into out training as best we can.
Just wanted to see how other Modern Arnis schools and clubs incorporate the language or if they just use english with some terminology.
Thanks for your input.
Ben.

hi,

thank you for your interest in this topic. we, here at MARPPIO want you and everyone to know that we are committed not only to the promotion of Modern Arnis as a martial art but to also to Filipino culture. we plan on doing more features on this site that will focus on Filipino culture and we believe this will give the modern anis student a deeper understanding of how this martial art will relate to the individual in a large socio-cultural way.

with that being said, here are a couple of other online resources that are available to you and the other MARPPIO schools regarding Tagalog terminology and Filipino culture:
http://fcskali.tripod.com/id11.html http://www.arniskarate.com/resource.html

finally, a question:

would you all be interested in more material related to Filipino culture posted on this site? if so, what (glossary, bibliography of Filipino literary works and FMA material, more pictures of the culture, links to outside sources, etc...)

thanks alakdan for initiating the interest in our School Forum category. at this time, response has been slow but our hope is that posts such as yours will enliven this site and enlighten all of our students and modern arnis enthusiasts worldwide.

I think all of your suggestions would not only benefit us but anyone visiting to get more information on Filipino Culture. A glossary would be helpful for our students and Links to outside sources would expand our access to other sources for information. Thanks for the help and I know that this site is going to grow and expand. Thanks again, Guro Ben.

A while back, my teacher, Datu Kelly Worden was teaching a class and told us the tale of a Wing Chun / JKD instructor with a deep south accent trying to pronounce Wing Chun terms line Bong Sao, Fut Sou, Choi ni Moen, etc. Kelly stated that it would be interesting and probably hilarious if a Chinese national could of heard this guy! "What the heck is he talking about"? could you imagine a Mississipi translation of a Bong Sou. Or a Southern Californian beach bum explaining center line theory. "Sounds radical dude!" Luckily for me, my advanced student, Ginny Smethers is our resident Filipino and I artfully dodge the subject and let Ginny handle it!

I read a lot, have many Filipino Martial Arts books and recommend them to my students, even loat them uut. I do talk about the classics and expect everybody to know what Rumpida, Sinawalli, etc. mean. I am a stickler for form and spend a lot of time with them, teaching the stick movements and breaking them down into DeKadena De Mano. With the more advanced techniques, I am constantly going back to the basics so the student knows where it came from.

But as an aAerican, who sometimes has a problem with my own language, I keep the Tagolog to Tagolonians.

Chris A

Guro Chris,
Sounds just like me. I can appreciate your experiences.
We also try to keep in touch with the local Filipino Community with a demonstration of Modern Arnis at a community picnic. They celebrate their Kalayaan (Independance Day) which is like the 4th of July for us. This allows the students to mingle and see the culture up close and hear the language. The food is awesome!!!
This could be an oppurtunity for your school. See if there is a Filipino Community Center in your area and touch base with them. Maybe there is an oppurtunity to share information or particpate in the community. Just an idea.
As always, thanks,
Guro Ben.

http://www.martialartsresource.com/abass/ -- Many animations/textfiles/videos on techniques.
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Tagalog_mainpage.htm -- Downloadable Tagalog-English Dictionary, as well as chat rooms to practice Tagalog in. Also includes an interesting history about the pre-Spanish Filipino alphabet.
http://www.byki.com/fls/free-tagalog-software-download.html?l=tagalog -- Freeware Tagalog learning software. Probably not enough to get you fluent, but a good start.

(None of these are sites I maintain or am affiliated with or benefit from. Just links I found that seemed helpful to me.)

Best wishes,

Joel