#13

     [a bird shape cloud in Sedona, AZ] 

13. A New Fire – Beginning to Teach Classes for the English Speaking Members

Language is different, culture is different, habits are different, and race and color of the skin are different; they were all strange and none of it was familiar.  When trying to communicate to these people, the first problem that I faced was language.  How can I solve this problem?
I could not speak any English at all.  It was merely what I learned in school, which was at the level of “I am a boy. You are a student.”  I only saw it in the books, and I was dozing off when the teacher was teaching, so I was in a state where I did not know any English at all.  At that time, for me, there wasn’t any opportunity to listen to it.  Nowadays, although common things like tapes, CD’s, and internet are everywhere, during the time when I was a student, even cassette tapes were scarce. 
It is because, for my whole life, I lived without thinking that I would be able to go to America.  I lived with the thought, that there was no relation between America and me.  It was a country and language I needed to know only to take exams and receive grades.
Now, members were gathered, and there was only one week left before starting the first class.  Night and day, I had to find a way as to how I would proceed.  The last thoughts were, through words it cannot be done.  Since, it was not like I could speak English in one week, so for one hour before the class, I would set up a training program and let them know in advance, what and how it is done, this training’s purpose, significance, benefits, etc.  I spoke Korean, and guided them to just look at the motions I made and follow them. 
For the explanation before the class, I asked the Tae Kwon Do Master to do the translation.  Since, there are motions for Do-In exercise, and the members were already using phrases in Korean for sequences and simple motions during Tae Kwon Do, they understood.  It was fortunate that the Tae Kwon Do Master had already taught them Korean, and I am truly grateful. 
After teaching a couple of times like such, members now began to understand.  Since simple Korean words were already being used at the Tae Kwon Do training hall, I think it was a bit easier. 
But, there was something lacking and incomplete about it.  The parts with motions, they could observe and follow, but for the parts with no motions, without words it could not be done.  Our training has motions, but in fact, there are much more important parts that are done internally where members needed to be focused.  Therefore, even though I could not speak English in sentences, I thought that I should at least memorize the words.  So I began to memorize them.  I completely wrote down all the words that are used in Dahnhak.  I thought about what kind of words were being used a lot one after another, wrote them down and memorized them.