.... I thought fire wasn't a thing you could really touch. How can you bend it, if you can't grab it?

[ ... So clearly he doesn't know this "fire nation" right? ]

I think some of them use fire, and they're called Shamans when they can? But I haven't met any, the Grove is far away from where they are.

[ Which doesn't explain why he knows that much about them, at all, huh? ]