Osu!

This picture has all the people mentioned below. Sensai Joy (far left) is addressing the class. In the first row (far left to right) is Sempai Barbara, Sempai George, and Sempai KJ. In the 2nd row, Summer is the blonde yellow belt.

Main Entry: Osu
Function: Exclamation
Definition: Exclamation that means “striving with patience”
Eatamology: Predominantly eaten out of the brains of Sensai Joy, Sempai George, and Sempai KJ. Also I think I ate this out of Summer’s brain. She’s my partner, the person who convinced me to join Sun Dragon, and the one who told me that the idea of “osu” was meant to be practiced inside and outside the dojo. According to my journal, the first time I applied the idea outside the dojo was on June 28.
Date: June 9, 2009, June 28, 2009, various dates until present

On my first day of karate class, I watched a more advanced class before my class begun because Summer was attending that class and she was my ride. When I heard “Osu!” repeatedly throughout the class I thought everyone was saying “Us!”. That made me think that the dojo had really tight (cult-like?) team chemistry. Later that day I found out what it meant, the correct pronunciation, and when I was supposed to say it. Whenever an instructor asked me to do something, the correct reply was “Osu!” followed by my best effort to do whatever technique they requested even if I had no idea how to do it. Even when I truly had no clue, faking it wasn’t too bad as long as I copied the people to the right of me (we often line up by rank in class).

Truth be told, striving with patience is hard for me. Striving is easy. I strive all the time. It’s the “with patience” part which is hard because I am very impatient especially when it comes to acquiring skills. When I was student teaching my lack of patience with myself nearly drove me out of the profession. I wanted to become as good as teachers with 5+ years of experience in a couple of weeks. I felt it was absolutely criminal not to learn the skills that quickly because my students were losing precious learning time while I was floundering.

Four years later, I have acquired many more skills that relate to my career. I no longer feel sorry for the kids that have to take my classes. However, I still find many chances to be impatient with myself because I am lucky enough that I often get opportunities to try out new things and I work for a school that encourages me to innovate and take risks. Sometimes the new things I get to do are things I really have no idea how to do until I actually get down to doing them.

Last summer I was feeling overwhelmed by one of these opportunities. I was collaborating on a professional development session for teachers with a team of educators who were spread out throughout the state of Texas. As we were getting started, I really started to doubt myself – I thought I had accepted a job with logistics that were way over my head. Heading into one of our planning meetings, I remember having a moment of clarity and “osu” came up. I thought we can do this and the best way I can support the team was by striving with patience. That meeting turned out to be very productive. During the meeting whenever I felt myself clenching up with frustration, I took a breath, thought osu, asked myself what were some logical next steps, waited until a couple possibilities came into my head, and then I used the ideas to help move our team forward step by step. By the end of the meeting, we laid the groundwork for our session and we set up shared tools (Google docs and presentations) that enabled us to continue collaborating after we commuted back to our home locations.

Since then, I have had many chances to apply this concept. I don’t want to describe all of them in detail because this entry is getting too long. However here are some general observations that are really important to me. Applying the idea of “osu” has helped me to treat my body and my mind with a little more patience (I’m a slow learner when it comes to my vices) and a lot more respect. It has also helped me to view others, especially my students and my colleagues, with a lot more patience and respect. I now have room in my brain to appreciate and perceive them all as learners at different points on many different learning trajectories. Having this wider view is a lot more hopeful and helpful than perceptions that merely focus on the details of the current moment.