Useful Martial Arts Terms Translated In English/Chinese (Mandarin)

Part of my newfound dedication to learning Chinese Mandarin whilst here at the Wugulun Kung Fu school, I thought to myself “what would have been really useful for me to have learned before I came to the school?”.

You see, because I’m not getting on a train or bus every other day or asking how much things cost, I couldn’t make much use learning the regular phrase books before I turned up. Instead, I need to know what orders or corrections are being barked at me whilst sweating in one of the stances or how to ask about the details of the moves being demonstrated. What I was looking for then, was a set of words/phrases which are commonly used in martial arts, so that’s what I’ve compiled here.

Much as I’d like to include phrases like “How much longer of this torture?” and “Surely we’ve done enough practice of that?”, I’ve kept the list practical.

If it helps just one person in a similar situation, it’ll be mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned.

Body Parts

Internals

Descriptive

Stances

Weapons

Misc

Special thanks go to Ibo and the students here who helped me compile the list. It’s only because of their patience and skill in interpreting my waving hands and sketches with twigs in the ground that this list was made.