Today is our day off. While we're still doing problems and joseki study, no games were played. This is as good a time as any to give you a bit more of an in-depth look at our teacher.
I haven't asked many questions about Yan laoshi's career as a go player, so the biographical info and player history is copied straight from
Guo Juan's internet go school.
Guo Juan's internet go school wrote:He learned Go at the age of 11. When he was 16 years old, he received training in the China National Team. He won third place in China ‘Xin Xiu Cup’ (new talented cup) in 1985. 4dan in 1982 and 7dan in 1989. In 1999, he founded the Hu Bei (province) WeiQi Club, and in 2001 the Hu Bei Tian Yuan Youth WeiQi Training Center. He has been successful in both playing and teach Go. He is a famous Go teacher in China now. He lives in Wuhan.
The honorific for teacher in China is laoshi (literally "old teacher", though the old should be seen as a sign of respect, not one of back aches and diminishing strength). Yan An (7p) is known to everybody here as Yan laoshi. That seems normal enough, but he also calls himself Yan laoshi, which we thought was a tad bit weird. The teacher thing doesn't stop there. Both his wife and son also call him Yan laoshi. And if that wasn't enough, the title is carried over to his wife as well. For the longest of times I thought she was called shimu. Until somebody told me that shimu actually just means "the teacher's wife". Even their son calls her shimu sometimes.
Yan laoshi mainly teaches young children (between the age of 8-14). I expect fifteen years of teaching have shaped him just as much as the kids he teaches. He talks in a way which is easy to understand, even if you know little to no Chinese. He loves telling jokes, funny anecdotes and making faces. Even though kids often get scolded during reviews, he makes sure there's laughs to be had as well, so the kids never feel bad after a review. He really likes the kids he teaches, which can be seen in almost everything he does, but perhaps is most clear in the occasional pat on the back or rub through a kid's hair after they suffer a rough loss. He always brings snacks and candy to school for the kids. We've heard that quite a few of his students have turned professional, but I don't have any numbers on that.
If some kid is making the same mistake repeatedly, Yan laoshi pulls out the discipline ruler. Apparently, he used to whack some of the kids on the head with that, until some of the western students (that came here long before we did) pointed out he really shouldn't do that. Now he just whacks the board instead, and air strangles them. The latter move always elicits loud laughing from the students following a review. As a joke, we got Yan laoshi a super-sized rolling pin, and called it his back-up discipline stick. It has already been used quite extensively for home teaching games and comic relief.
Two of his favourite phrases are: sushou (crude move) and bu shi weiqi. shi xiangqi. (that's not weiqi. that's chess!). The last one is often abbreviated to "No weiqi!"
When we're playing Yan laoshi in a teaching game, he becomes a different person. All jokes disappear, and he suddenly looks one feet taller and much more intimidating. While playing, he rubs two of the pale green yunzi from his bowl together. These sound exactly like a knife being sharpened. Just like the proverbial knife, his moves are never fancy, just very, very sharp. He's had a lot of time to perfect the art of the teaching game, but it's still impressive how he only plays basic moves. If you play well enough, he will resign, but if he judges you've made too many mistakes, he will press until you realize the only option is to put two stones on the board at the same time. Except for the seven-stone games with DDK players, I've never seen a game being counted.
Yan laoshi has an impressive collection of tsumego books. Judging from the amount of books, he really favours the two Japanese composers Maeda Nobuaki and Hashimoto Utaro.
Away from the board, Yan laoshi likes good food, fine alcohol, the company of his family, and basketball. Back when Yao Ming was still playing, that was his number one idol, but lately he's followed China in rooting for Kobe Bryant. It's probably his only flaw of character
. Yan laoshi used to play for a very long time, and according to his son (by far and away the best basketball player in the neighbourhood), Yan laoshi used to be a legendary 3-point shooter. We got him a new basketball for his birthday.
I was surprised to discover Yan laoshi also likes video games. His smartphone is a portable game station that never stops entertaining. One of the games I've seen him play the most is a Chinese old-school space shooter (in tradition of Gradius or R-Type). He's really good at it (still haven't managed to break his high score).
However, you have to dig beneath the surface, to see why plays that were not played were not played. 
, seeing it in a joseki book (or pro game) allows you to add it to your arsenal. But is memorization the best way to study this joseki? Is seeing it and getting an idea of the continuations enough to let you use it yourself? (OC, it would be better to study it thoroughly, but that is not the same as memorization, either.) 
in the (first) variation in the first game is a very nice move. I will try hard to remember this shape : )