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Poor CuriousAboutAshtanga, I'm afraid we haven't been very helpful and if the paper was due a couple of weeks ago an answer now may not help but I feel like taking a run at it anyway. If nothing else it might provide fodder for some entertaing exchange of opinions.

I'm going to answer the question as phrased this way:

I need a practitioner of Ashtanga to carefully and thouroughly answer the following questions for me..

1. Why study Ashtanga?

Many years of experience by countless practitioners has shown that the six-day-a-week practice of Ashtanga provides the practitioner with a strong overall feeling of mental and physical well being.

2. How is it different from any other form of yoga or exercise?

When practiced as taught at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India (or by one of their authorized instructors) Ashtanga is generally agreed by its practitioners to provide an integrated and well balanced combination of moving meditation, relaxation, flexibility training, strength training and general improvement in mood and sense of well-being unparalleled by any other form of yoga or exercise.

It differs from other forms of yoga primarily by the inclusion of vigorous, rapid movements between yoga postures, designed to warm up the body and always keep the mind focused on the body's activities.

It differs from other forms of exercise in providing specific inputs to all of the senses, and specific focal points for the mind at all times, so as to achieve a state of moving meditation.

3. Is there a certain language that practitioners use? Any slang?

Ashtanga postures are referred to by teachers using transliterated Sanskrit names. Students of Ashtanga thus learn many Sanskrit words associated with the practice itself and this leads some to study Sanskrit in greater depth. The Sanskrit names of the various postures can be found here.

4. How can you tell a beginner from an experienced practitioner?

All practitioners are always developing in their practice but one arbitrary milestone could be defined as the point when one is able to proceed from the beginning of the 'Primary Series' of postures through to the end while maintaining full synchronization of the breathing as specified by AYRI. But the real point is the inner experience of the practice. I believe most practitioners would agree that as time passes their inner experience deepens (a greater sense of well-being and satisfaction after practicing) but this is not directly visible to the external observer.

5. What kind of dress do practicers of Ashtanga have?

Any clothes providing full freedom of movement and compatible with a lot of sweating will do. Ashtanga is a vigorous practice best done in a relatively warm room. Most people wear form fitting shorts, men sometimes wear tops and sometimes don't.

6. What are the understood rules of Ashtanga?

It is understood that the rules are laid down by the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute and the fundamental issue is the association of a specific motion of the body with each inhale and with each exhale from the beginning of the roughly 90 minute practice all the way through to the end of it.

7. What have you learned by studying this form of yoga?

I have learned an effective way of organizing my personal development and that the method taught by AYRI for the practice of Ashtanga is a great metaphor for the practice of life.