Korean equivalent of Senior student

[Azulx]

But in a system where it takes 6-8 years of honest, hard work to reach that level I would expect that you would have very solid fundamentals and be more than a "beginner" in the normal sense of the word ....otherwise there is something amiss in the training method.

Oh absolutely, I feel the same way. In our system at 8 years of training you would approximately be somewhere in between 3rd and 4th Dan.

 

[geezer]

Oh absolutely, I feel the same way. In our system at 8 years of training you would approximately be somewhere in between 3rd and 4th Dan.

Heck, I've been trying to move up from 3rd to 4rth since about 1986 ...that would be 30 years! ...Well OK, I actually left the martial arts from the early 90s to about 2007, some 15 years, but I've been back at it for the last 9 years and still haven't earned another promotion. Unfortunately for me, in our organization skill and knowledge are more important than time in rank. Jeez, imagine that!

 

[Azulx]

Heck, I've been trying to move up from 3rd to 4rth since about 1986 ...that would be 30 years! ...Well OK, I actually left the martial arts from the early 90s to about 2007, some 15 years, but I've been back at it for the last 9 years and still haven't earned another promotion. Unfortunately for me, in our organization skill and knowledge are more important than time in rank. Jeez, imagine that!

It's so nice to read that school's still promote based off of skill and knowledge. My school is 100% based on time, which of course there will be skilled and knowledgeable individuals who make it to black belt, but I feel like it leaves a lot of room for beginners to make it among the rank of black belt. Then again our school started in September 2015, so no one has made a black belt yet.