Butt or Bum?

Last night we hosted yoga at our house here on Tutuila, and it was a great!! It might sound corny but I feel really lucky to have met a wonderful group of people here, who all want to practice yoga and it has turned out to be the ideal way for me to put the theory and teacher training to use!

Yesterday, admittedly, I was alittle nervous. I have brought quite a few materials with me but not everything, so I delved deeply in to the notes, and thankfully realised I did have enough to put together a class that would hopefully leave people feeling happy and ultimately relaxed.
The group are a mix of Americans and English folk, from a range of states and places. We started in Sukhasana and moved through a variety of poses that included the Warriors, Eagle, and Bridge amongst others, and finally Savasana.

You would expect that teaching in the English language is quite straight forward and nothing to worry about, but in teaching, when articulation is paramount, indecision can leave people feeling confused especially (as I discovered last night) when it comes to talking about that part of our anatomy often left behind - the bum (if you're English), or butt (if you're American)! The glutes, bottom, buttocks or bum - whatever you choose to call it are often neglected literally and figuratively, but last night I just couldn't decide on which word to use! I needed to be consistent and so finally settled on 'glutes' as an overall description of the muscle group - but boy was my mind racing as to which word was most appropriate! Thankfully I don't think anyone really noticed apart from me since everyone left slowly and calmly - not rushing away from the confused teacher!

I'll be better prepared next time, however I'm sure there are more surprises ahead in the yoga world of terms and phrases! Have you ever struggled with certain words whilst practising or teaching? What were they and how did you cope?

Namaste
Suze