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| My fellow ETAs and me receiving our brand-new, personalized Taekwondo uniforms. Joy! |
Our instructor is a Jungwon student who has been practicing TKD since he was a preteen. His American name is "Jamie," which he said made the previous year's group of ETAs laugh at him because, they said, it is usually a girl's name. We assured him that "Jamie" was not just a girl's name, and that it was a fine name that suited him well. Jamie is very energetic and friendly. He thinks he requires a translator during our sessions but his English is actually quite good. Despite this, he still frequently apologizes to us, saying, "I'm sorry. My English is...not very good."
Everyone basically loves this guy. It probably didn't hurt that he started off our teacher-student relationship by giving us all black belts! I feel very undeserving of this, but hey.
He taught us punching moves today, which were pretty simple in theory, but not in practice. My hand/foot coordination is awful. I'm the person in the group who makes a move, and then, realizing that I'm the only one with the wrong foot forward, quickly goes to change it before the instructor calls out the next move.
In my defense, the last time I did anything physical in a class-setting was PE in 9th grade. I am in for a real challenge, but I will welcome this with open arms seeing as how I spent a majority of my childhood wishing I practiced some sort of martial arts.
It is never too late and you are never too old to begin a new hobby!
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| I am a black belt in Taekwondo, apparently. In any case, I do like the personal touch of our names and the word "Fulbright" on our belts and on the back of our uniforms! |
MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU:
What is something you have always wanted to try but have never found the time, resources, or opportunity to do? What do you think is keeping you from going/doing/eating/playing/learning?
That's sounds fun Mi. The more you practice kicking the more you perfect it. It's a great excersise too. As you know I started practicing martial arts when I took my criminology course. My regret was I didn't finish it and the special treatment I got wasn't helping me.
ReplyDeleteTake it serious that you will learn every moment of it. It will benefit you.
Ma, I didn't know that you practiced some martial arts before! What was it? My joints hurt from trying to do the new kicks we just learned. Hahaha. I think I'm taking this way too seriously but, you're right, I know that this will be of great benefit to me (once I actually learn).
DeleteDude, the last time you did some physical action was in the Philippines with Arnis. Did you forget about the week intense training before competing against those other college students?
ReplyDeleteAnyways, you're right, a lot of those classes did look really interesting. I, myself, would have probably had a hard time choosing from cooking, kpopdancing and tae kwon doe.
I think you getting a black belt on the first day is totally deceiving though. You have to start at like yellow or something or else it's just not right.
I can picture it very clearly: you struggling in class like usual. Show the beast side of you though and you will succeed! :)
You're right! I didn't forget about Arnis but I didn't think it counted since we only did an intense 1 week of it. We improved so much though that that experience has actually given me faith for TKD. Even though our lessons are not as intense, I hope to continue this for the whole year, which should definitely give me more practice than with Arnis. I would love to continue Arnis here if I could...
DeleteThe black belt thing was out of my control. Hahaha! I know what you mean. I am all for earning my belt, starting from white!
I will let you know if I can summon my beast mode and what happens when I do ;)
That's amazing that you've received an honorary black belt! I'm looking forward to where your training takes you. Great decision btw :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Andrew! Before I came here and made this decision, you had already subconsciously worked as a FB advertisement for TKD in my mind. I would be extremely happy if I could do one of those flying kicks you do in some of your pics. Is it doable within one year? Of course I'm also open for staging it :D
DeleteYou can totally get that down! I'll preach safety first, however. We'll get together and literally kick it.
DeleteI look forward to this! :D
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