Different attitude towards athlete

This evening, I had dinner with my friend and her families in our house. Her younger daughter was so energetic all the time. We had fun with her. My friend told me that she has almost 9 different sports classes to go every week. At first, I was surprised and she instantly justified that it only because of her interest. So she let it go.
I admire her daughter. I had been an athlete in China for almost 13 years during which there were troubles and  happiness. I really like sports, all kinds of sports. But I still remember that all my academic teachers in junior and high schools had a negative attitude towards my interest just because of my unsatisfactory academic grade even if I broke the national record and won a lot of awards.
Now, I am in the US. I saw a lot of people doing great at sports which take a big part in their school life. I like it for the reason of they have supports from teachers and all sorts of choices available on sports.

Learning English from life

 It happened a lot during my English learning that I rarely use or hardly remember the meaning of the words which we saw a lot during my daily life. Today, my friend told me her funny story happened on the street in our district. She kept saying "bump ride" several times. At first I did not figure it out what the meaning of that. I did not ask her to explain until I was still in confusion. Then she explained it explicitly. Suddenly, I found, Oh, it is "BUMP"! There are a lot of large signs "BUMP" on the ground of streets, and I see it everyday. What is wrong with me! I thought about it; this phenomenon did and does exist in my English learning. Fortunately, at least I noticed it.
  Another word confusing me is "xing", the sign on the yellow guideboard. I know the meaning it indicates that there are people might going across streets. But when I checked a dictionary, there is no its existence. I wonder why use this word.