Amanda Takes Off...

150 People

Tonight's class was—as usual—good.

While we were warming up, I asked Master about his father's 9th dan ceremony (it took place today). Approximately a dozen people received their ninth dan, bringing the total number ever awarded to about 150.

Wow.

In telling this story, he used one of the verbs I've recently learned (갔다 왔어요). I stared at him, he repeated it and it clicked. "To have gone and returned."

He started talking to the whole class about dan grades, honorary 10th dan, and so on. He asked me if I knew about a certain taekwondo organization and I said I did. During our break, I asked about the organization and discovered that he was talking about another one. In the course of this (Konglish) conversation I taught him what "black belt factory" means. When my Korean is better, I'll describe a McDojo. (Yes, very similar, but I think McDojos also push more of an Eastern mysticism thing.)

We got to talking about 9th dan again. I asked if all 150 people were Korean and he said he thought so. He said, "very few foreigners have black belts in taekwondo." I asked him about taekwondo in the(mandatory) military service. This caused one of those chart-drawing episodes on the white board.

Corporate Teams?

He said that the Army has many people and many people practicing taekwondo. The Navy and Air Force have less people and less taekwondo. The Marines have very few people, but almost all of them do taekwondo. He described being a taekwondo instructor in the military, which I didn't know he'd done. "1,000 front kicks, right leg, go! GO!"

He went into some depth about how each branch has their own taekwondo team, and they form the military team. The military team, college teams, and corporate teams compete to help decide who goes to the Olympics, the WTF world championships (I think), and the Asian games. The tournament I went to last month at the Kukkiwon was the college competition. Master had to say, "like Samsung" before I understood that corporate teams exist. It wasn't a matter of vocabulary, since I know "company;" it was the fact that the idea of a corporate taekwondo team was completely foreign to me.

Somehow this lead to us discussing how many people in Korea practice taekwondo. In large part because of the military, Master estimated that 90% of men (especially younger than say, 50) have a black belt, probably higher than first degree. He estimates that less than 20% of the women here practice taekwondo. He reminded me, "But my wife, 1 dan! And my mother, 4 dan!"

"Your Name! So Long!"

This got us going on names. "Amanda, what 'junior' mean? You know MLB? Ken Griffey, Jr?" I talked about Sr and Jr with regard to my father and brother, who have unusual names because they have two middle names. I told him what my nephew's name will be (not the Third) and where the names came from.

Master looked at me. "Your name! So long!" He said my name in Korean, counting the beats. "Nine parts! We only have three, maybe four!"

I counted the beats in English and grinned, "Only 7 in English, and only three names. Like Korean!" I added that having two middle names is unusual in America.

I explained that my name comes from Latin and means "worthy of love." In Korean I said, "My mom and dad met in Latin class."

"Ahhh! Ahhh! Really? Oh!" he said, understanding completely.

This conversing made the break extremely long. I apologized for taking his time in Korean. In English he answered, "No, Amanda, thank you."

"Why?"

"I was tired."

In English I said, "When you're tired, I think, 'don't ask about Korean.'"

"No, this, nice break."

Well the other students certainly didn't seem to mind, since they were playing games, running around, and text messaging while we were chatting. (We actually did some taekwondo in class tonight, despite how I make it seem.)

Victory is Mine!

After class, we sat in a circle (something Master has only started doing this week) and Master started talking about something. I understood April 29th and poomse, striking, a kicking demonstration... I started asking questions in Korean. Where? Who would be there? How many people? Is it a competition? Are we watching a demonstration? Will it be at the testing site?

He asked a seemingly out of place question in English. "Amanda, are you Christian?"

In Korean, "No, I'm not."

Master then surveyed the whole class, asking who was Christian, who was Catholic (Catholic is not seen under the Christian umbrella here), who was Buddhist, who was something else, who was nothing. No matter how times I get asked this question, it throws me. Here, surveying our religions came out as casually as when I used to survey my fifth grade classroom with "how many brothers/sisters/pets do you have?"

This survey was followed by "you know 교회?" Amazingly, I do know "church," even though I thought it would be a useless word when I learned it.

I thought he was saying some people couldn't go because the activity was on a Sunday.

He went back to talking about the activity, I asked some more questions. Finally I understood. He asked if I wanted to come and I said, "Yes, that will be interesting" in Korean.

And the best part was, other than his Christian question, the clarification was done entirely in Korean. I didn't have to revert to English, we didn't have to get out a dictionary. I didn't have to ask the same question four different ways. No, I only asked each question once. It was all in Korean.

"I understand! But now...my head hurts," I joked in Korean.

Some of the boys laughed at how excited I was to understand, so I turned the tables on them. In fairly slow (but faster than I normally use in the studio) simplified English I said, "Sunday, April 29th, Tongil people will do a demonstration. There will be 30 or 40 people there. It will be in Haan-dong at a church. The church invited you. We will do poomse, striking, taekwondo with music, and maybe a kicking demonstration. Maybe I will do poomse and striking."

Master cocked his head to the side while the boys just looked at me and then each other. Goalie and Grin's Brother whispered to each other, "Wow. So much English!"

Master said, "Yes, I think, OK! You understand!"

I probably should not have done that, but while the boys are usually so good to me, sometimes I can see them thinking, Why can't she understand this?

They're young, they don't know better. (Contrast that to the adults in America who scream, "Why can't they just learn English?") I wanted them to know—for just a minute—how hard it is to really understand a foreign language. They were lucky because they at least knew what the topic was about in their own language before I ever opened my mouth.

I think they sometimes forget that indeed, I am fluent in my own language. The English they hear me speak in the studio is slower, simplified, Koreanafied English. It is not native speaking English!

All told, a fabulous night.