Taekwondo 태권도

Or simply TKD. During orientation, we have the option of participating in different cultural activities: calligraphy lessons, a traditional tea ceremony, salmulnori (drumming), cooking, hanji (art of paper folding), or, what I signed up for, TKD. A deal was worked out with the 'master of Chuncheon' for a month of lessons (Mon-Thrus, 1hr/day) and a dobok (도복) unifrom. We meet the master last week for our unifrom fitting; he is such the master that all we had to do was stand up, even from across the room, for him to determine the correct size.

Before I go into what happened at yesterday's first lesson, let's go back to the Chuncheon Taekwondo tournament. We've been sharing our dormitroy with youth taekwondo teams from China and Russia and seen other teams (Iraq, Hong Kong, China) around campus. To get pumped for our first TKD lesson, a group of us went to Hobang gymnasium to watch some matches.

We didn't know the rules, so nothing really made sense. Points are awarded for 'good' hits to the opponents target areas: 1pt for the chest, 2 pts the head (but not the face), and an extra point if the opponent is knocked down. That's why some kicks are higher--double the points!

Yesterday was our first lesson. Right after Korean class, we changed into our doboks to go directly to the gym. As Americans, we're already a spectacle; 40 of us dressed all in doboks, even more so! We didn't even know how to correctly tie our belts, which was the first lesson.
The first lesson, especially considering we're all straight-up beginners, was more physically challenging than I expected: 20 laps around the gym (not so hard, but really sweaty), stretching, jumping (over a partner touching their toes, over partner who's on 'praying' on the ground, touching our toes, etc), and basic commands. Generally, I'm excited--it'll be a great workout. For some of the group, TKD is a lot more exercise than they expected. It'll be interesting to see what they do; the fee for a month of classes a bit expensive (100,000 won, ~$80).

tae = 태 = 'feet'
kwon = 권 = 'fist'
do = 도 = 'way'/'method'

taekwondo = 'way of the feet and fist'

According to the master, taekwondo requires endurance, agility, strength (=physical training),etc. And supposedly, everything will become easier, and each day we'll be less sore. We'll see!