Grashoper,
First, congratulations on your 2 years study.
It is a fact of life that our system, like many others, has many interpretations under the same name. Unfortunately these may be the ones who make it to the Inside Kung Fu magazines or books. These people, the "haters", will often generalize on what they have been exposed to instead of understanding the whole.
I have been given this book by a student on the Lead Punch by one of Ted Wongs students. She points out how Bruce Lee "abandoned" Wing Chun, using his reference to traditional Chinese Kung Fu in a letter to GM Cheung. Bruce describes traditional Chinese Kung Fu as being incomplete and I believe this statement may have been true in one sense (where Bruce was at the time in his training). I believe Bruce, like most martial arts students, was looking for the "moves" to do everything. When in essense, those who truly study martial arts to an advanced level realize the "moves" from a system provide the foundation for "your own moves". I believe that Bruce would later understand this from his own maturation process.
I have met those who knew Bruce. Wing Chun was his core and he maintained that Jeet Kune Do was this finding of one's self, that is was not a style or a system. Wing Chun is a proven system. The truth was that Bruce, even though he did not complete the Wing Chun system, had great Sihings and enough insight that he did what we should all be doing - moving in a direction of freedom. Not to imitate but to create. I know that many Wing Chun lineages speak in the same terms as Bruce about Wing Chun. Maybe her allegations that Jeet Kune Do was so different from Wing Chun are based on her experiences with Wing Chun people who did not understand or express those philosophies.
What starts out as Wing Chun should be the foundation that evolves into your own Kung Fu ("Jeet Kune do") with Wing Chun concepts. The system starts you out, but the system should not become your ball and chain. Many styles teach the system without allowing the student to build on the system. If one wants to use joint locks and high kicks, this is ok. However, this is not Wing Chun. It is fine as your own Kung Fu. We must make this distinction.
Wing Chun is a system where by many can become better than others studying much longer in a fight. However, like anything else, this ability can make some very pompous and arrogant. This is why I believe that Kung Fu is not all about fighting. It is great to have the skill, but better to build upon being a great person in society with high character. The great martial artist has the ability to face the challenges others run from.
Becoming a Sifu is using your experiences to share with your students, not to take your interpretation and mold them into it. Like being a parent, you can only hope to instill values and the true concepts of the system. How they use it is up to them, but they will see in the results. The beauty of Wing Chun is that it does not really care about method, as the Kung fu is the result.
Teaching is not for everyone. However, what is the value of learning something and not sharing it? Believe me, you are correct in seeing how much you learn when showing others. Especially, if you find that your explanations are well founded and clear. That you are not saying things like "this is the way Sifu showed me", but have good understanding. The process of learning Kung Fu is not the same for all.
Moy Yat Kung Fu - Martial Intelligence