Yoga

My American friend in Manchester is planning to move to France and is thinking of becoming a yoga instructor to get a part time job there. She is studying French and thinks a yoga instructor wouldn’t need to speak French fluently. Actually I take yoga classes twice a week at a fitness club near my place, one of the instructors is Brazilian and the other is Chinese. The Brazilian instructor always confuses the words “pull” with “push” and some students tried correcting her English, however, they failed and no one tries to do it anymore. All of us understand if she said “push” it meant “pull” and we moved smoothly. I’ve never thought about becoming a yoga instructor because my body isn’t flexible but I enjoy attending the classes. Once I start something I prefer to keep practicing it regularly so I go to the fitness gym every week.
On our first meeting, the Chinese instructor said, “ni hao?” in a small voice to me but I shook my head then she said, “Sorry I thought you were a Chinese.” It’s difficult to distinguish between someone from China and someone from Japan, so she didn’t need to apologize to me; if we speak, it’s quite easy to recognize the nationality because our languages sound quite different, however, it’s hard to judge the nationality by physical appearance. Whenever I’m not sure of the nationality of whom I’m talking to, I’m wondering what to say. I don’t want to speak English with Japanese people, but I feel it’s rude to ask the nationality first. Saying “konnichiwa” in a small voice is a very good idea to find Japanese people. I’ll copy her way.
Last week, the Chinese instructor was planning a yoga practice which is performed by two people. She needed a partner for some demonstrations and asked for my help. It wasn’t because I was good but because of my height. The average height of a Japanese female is 158cm and a Chinese female is 159cm; we’re almost the same, on the other hand, the average British female is 164cm. In addition, I’m smaller than average and so is my instructor. Our heights are almost the same and even though my body isn’t flexible I’m the best for her to demonstrate some postures as a pair. In the beginning I concentrated on doing the posture with her and didn’t pay attention to everyone else, however, gradually I had room to breathe and finally I faced my classmates. Then I noticed everybody was smiling and their eyes on us. Surprisingly the atmosphere was very comfortable for me, perhaps I should start to think about becoming a yoga instructor in the future.