November Kicks-Off with an International Flair

The first weekend of November was rather jam packed. Friday afternoon I went for a Hapkido test. It was one of those quick tests, where I’ve learned some of the techniques only the day before and was tested on them the next day. Luckily the kwanjangnim (chief instructor) seemed pleased with my performance – so I passed. I’m a 1st Dan in Hapkido at present. Before I can go for my 2nd Dan test I need to do about 10 of these intermediate tests along the way. I actually appreciate these short-term goals, which conveniently breaks down the bigger syllabus in bite-sized chunks.

Saturday morning the previous student cell-group I’m responsible for was replaced with a new one. After the cell-group I went to church. Young attended there as well. Afterwards we went to the apartment of one of my colleagues. Bessie invited a couple of teachers and students over for lunch at her place. The meeting included some Americans, English, South Africans and Koreans.
Next, I went with Young to a church in Kangnam where a missionary Oriental doctor treats people for free. Young has been experiencing some sinus-problems and has been treated by this doctor a couple of times. Since the treatment is free, there was a queue of people so we had to wait quite some time. It was worth the wait to see the doctor pressing an inch long needle into my friends face!

I rushed back home to come get my wallet, as I planned to meet Lindiwe in the city for some shopping. I seriously need some more warm clothes. But once I got home I just couldn’t bear the idea of travelling an hour back to the city hub. So I decided to stay in Saturday night. I stayed up late watching Japanese anime and surfing the Net.

John doing a Hapkido technique on Simon.

Sunday morning I slept in and the dashed off to meet John (my Hapkido friend). John wrote an Hapkido article and needed some photos to go with it, so he asked me to take them while he and Simon (another Hapkido friend) demonstrated the techniques. It was quite nice to see Simon again. We used to train together often during my previous stay in Korea.

John pointed out the nice international vibe we’ve got going as we were walking towards the spot where we took the photos. We were five nationalities strolling through a suburb in Seoul. John is American; his wife, Yoshiko, is Japanese. Simon is English, his girlfriend, Jennifer, is Canadian; and of course, I’m South African. Then there was also little Mika – John and Yoshiko’s daughter (Japanese-American-Born-In-Korea).

Towards the end of our visit I noticed that I started to get a little irritable. I’m blaming it on blood sugar levels, and being hungry. As I’m usually very much a go-with-the-flow kind of guy people are often taken aback when I suddenly assert myself. This happened this afternoon with John as well. We were doing some Hapkido techniques when I brought up my dismay over the terminology of a certain technique. The problem is, Hapkido techniques are not properly “named” – not even in Korean. So trying to come to grips with techniques we often borrow terminology from other grappling styles, or just invent our own. The dilemma is that things don't always make sense (to me at least).

But actually, the real issue is that I’m a wordsmith. Not in the “always grammatically correct”-kind of way... rather in the “words have specific meanings”-kind of way. John pointed out that we argued over semantics and I was thinking – exactly! That is the point.

My quandary with semantics is not isolated to Hapkido only. I have a similar issue with how Taekwon-Do terms are translated from Korean into English as well.

Words are not merely words to me. Words are thoughts. Words are weapons. Words can heal. Words can create. After all, the Word created everything. (See John 1:1-3.)

After the visit at John’s I went to Itaewon where I met Lindiwe for dinner, after which we rushed to my campus for a gospel performance. The music group is called the Golden Angels. They are currently in their fifth ensemble. The current group consists of Korean, Japanese and Mongolian members. Next year a Malasian lady is joining the group. The music isn’t really my style of music, although there were some good songs. I wasn’t really in the mood to go, but Young’s fiancé, Angelina, was performing. Angelina did a delightful solo. She isn't a current member of the Golden Angels anymore, more but for this special concert they invited all the previous members join the show.

And now I’m doing laundry and preparing for tomorrows classes.

The photos in this post is are not Creative Commons images.