Face the flags.
Chah-reyot.
Kyeong-Nae.
First half Songham Spirit of Taekwondo
Si-Juhk.
Sir/Ma'am,
I will practice in the spirit of Taekwondo,
With courtesy for my fellow students,
Loyalty for my instructors,
And respect for my juniors and seniors,
Sir/Ma'am.
Chah-reyot.
Kyeong-Nae.
Sir had me bow the class in and out for the first time last night! Now, reciting the Songham Spirit of Taekwondo isn't that big of a deal, but I couldn't remember the Korean commands for anything! I badly mangled what I'm sure is already bastardized Korean. Sir was good about prompting me, but I'm sure my "deer in the headlights" look was fairly comical. Luckily, there weren't nearly as many people there as usual last night, although there were still a fair few. Not many of the regular crowd was there. Only seven color belts, so I actually had some room to do formwork! Sir told me to forget about my arm/handwork for a while - it's "powerful" enough - and to work on widening and deepening my stances. That's going to be a hard habit to break, but I'll try! I blew through my first board again, so after everyone had taken their turns, I asked if I could try again with the next hardest board. I blew through that one, too. I like this palm-strike break! C started teasing me about sparring again. Only a few more non-sparring weeks left - test is June 9th! I'll actually be able to test with the rest of the class for the first time. I'm more nervous about that, actually. I'm starting to look forward to sparring, though. I feel like movements are starting to come a little more fluidly, although I definitely don't have the speed and power, and I'm not looking forward to being the lowest belt in the sparring class! Not that I think anyone would try to hurt me, but, well, it IS sparring. I'm assuming it's like stage combat - inexperienced people are the most dangerous!
Face the flags.
Chah-reyot.
Kyeong-Nae.
Second half Songham Spirit of Taekwondo
Si-Juhk.
Sir/Ma'am
I will live with perserverance in the spirit of Taekwondo,
Having honor with others,
Integrity for myself,
And self-control of my actions,
Sir/Ma'am.
Chah-reyot.
Kyeong-Nae.*
*Apologies for the Romanized Korean - that's what it sounds like to me.
3 comments:
You make me seem very lazy! LOL
Thanks for the birthday wishes to Malcolm, and a very happy birthday to you, tomorrow!! :)
You know, I have pretty much memorized the Korean gov't's most recent Romanization system. But I still tend to write taekwondo words as I learned them or most often see them, which is usually NOT the Romanization standard.
Romanization is a necessary evil.
Add to that the fact that many instructors in America have never heard real Korean and well...
Oh, and we formally bow in so infrequently, I don't think I could do it correctly. I don't listen to the words for that part well enough. ^^
Anyhow--the palm strike is good, isn't it? I find it much easier than the knife strike.
Congratulations :) I'm sure you will do great when your test arrives - I have no experience at all with martial arts, but if nothing else, you seem very passionate, and that alone is bound to translate into good things!
Post a Comment