More to Taekwondo than meets the eye?

[puunui]

Here is the first one in english for ten bucks on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Taekwondo-P...629?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item48437e6aad

 

[mastercole]

I'd be interested in your thoughts (and those of others) about teaching philosophy to students in the context of their development--that is, "what to teach when," given that people's understanding, motivation for practice, and capabilities vary both due to their unique contexts as well as where they are on the path of learning Taekwondo.
Cynthia

Generally I suggest that students attempt to learn about the Tao and Confucius, but I do not say it that often. Even more rarely will I mention anything Buddhist, however, the when I do directly talk about motivation and character development with students, it is almost always based in the Eight Fold Path, and the Four Noble Truths, without the mention of Buddha and without the terminology. Most Westerners (especially here in the Midwest USA) have no clue as to who the Buddha is and they have some really twisted views of what he might be. Some people would openly react oddly to any notion of the Buddha, and even more people would quitely find it very odd and be uncomfortable. I had some parent comment to me after 911 about statue - worshiping - radical Buddhist Muslims crashing planes into buildings to kill Americans. I tried to explain it but the conversation just ended up getting more and more bizarre.

This will give you an idea. But this is not for students, and it has terminology, etc, you can read the philosophy thought. http://www.taekwondojidokwan.com/page4.html

 

[lifespantkd]

Don't let that stop you. Where there is a will there is a way.

You bet!

Cynthia

 

[lifespantkd]

Generally I suggest that students attempt to learn about the Tao and Confucius, but I do not say it that often. Even more rarely will I mention anything Buddhist, however, the when I do directly talk about motivation and character development with students, it is almost always based in the Eight Fold Path, and the Four Noble Truths, without the mention of Buddha and without the terminology. Most Westerners (especially here in the Midwest USA) have no clue as to who the Buddha is and they have some really twisted views of what he might be. Some people would openly react oddly to any notion of the Buddha, and even more people would quitely find it very odd and be uncomfortable. I had some parent comment to me after 911 about statue - worshiping - radical Buddhist Muslims crashing planes into buildings to kill Americans. I tried to explain it but the conversation just ended up getting more and more bizarre.

This will give you an idea. But this is not for students, and it has terminology, etc, you can read the philosophy thought. http://www.taekwondojidokwan.com/page4.html

Yes, I've read this page several times. It meshes well with my other reads.

Cross-religious/philosophical conversations are very tricky to negotiate, especially when the people involved don't know each other very, very well and don't already have a trust-based relationship. If religion/philosophy is viewed as an aspect of culture, people's seemingly bizarre behavior makes perfect sense. We all generally tend to be ethnocentric: what my group believes is correct; anything else is not. The further that information or an experience gets from the beliefs (be they religious, cultural, or personal) that we have incorporated into our world view, the more uncomfortable and confused we tend to get. Add misinformation to that and we can have some pretty interesting encounters!

My two favorite books on culture are:

"Culture and Social Behavior" and "Individualism and Collectivism" by the eminent social psychologist, Harry Triandis who devoted his life to the study of culture. I had the privilege of consulting with him on my thesis for my masters in clinical psychology. A great man. I have found his numerous publications enormously useful in all of my work related to culture, including trying to understand Taekwondo better.

Cynthia

 

[sopraisso]

Cynthia, thank you for sharing your list. I really started the Tao Te Ching, for some reason I stopped the reading (I would say "the studying") for a while. At first it was very difficult to find meaning in its very indirect words, but lately I found it great, coz to me this is related in a greater focus on personal feelings and experience of the reader, instead of sticking the reader to the words -- that alone are not important. The reading was really being very enjoyable.
I'll try to know more of your other indications.

I have to thank mastercole for the link and his thoughts. I believe teaching about philosophy and moral/cultural aspects in taekwondo should be a good way to build interest on the students for the martial art, but it must be a real challange to do this without conflicting with the students' own cultural background. Maybe it's easier said than done. As I practice taekwondo in a relatively small place, in a country and city where people rarely have difficulty to accept other cultural aspects (there are always exceptions, off course), maybe it's much easier here. I think mastercole shared an experience that presents well the issue, and that I hadn't thought about before. As he said, maybe the key can not mentioning Buddha, taoism and the traditional terminology, regarding all only to taekwondo philosophical aspects, and then, maybe, explain it better personally to the ones who show more interest.

 

[puunui]

My two favorite books on culture are:

"Culture and Social Behavior" and "Individualism and Collectivism" by the eminent social psychologist, Harry Triandis who devoted his life to the study of culture. I had the privilege of consulting with him on my thesis for my masters in clinical psychology. A great man. I have found his numerous publications enormously useful in all of my work related to culture, including trying to understand Taekwondo better.

I just ordered both books from Amazon. Harry Triandis has written or co-written a lot of other books, but I will start with these two for now. Thank you for the reference.

 

[lifespantkd]

I just ordered both books from Amazon. Harry Triandis has written or co-written a lot of other books, but I will start with these two for now. Thank you for the reference.

Anyone who loves studying culture is in for a treat with these two books. May I suggest you read "Culture and Social Behavior" first? "Individualism and Collectivism" goes into great detail into one dimension of culture and social behavior: how people approach relationships. While "Culture and Social Behavior" paints a rich backdrop of several dimensions of culture (how we approach time, construct our relationship with nature, and so on) in which individualism/collectivism is intertwined. When you read about individualism/collectivism (in either book), make especial note of what he writes about vertical vs. horizontal individualism/collectivism. The high degree of vertical collectivism in Korean culture can be seen in aspects of Taekwondo.

If you have time, I'd love to know what you think of the concepts outlined in the books when you've read them--in general, as they relate to Korean culture, and/or as they relate to Taekwondo.

Enjoy!

Cynthia

 

[puunui]

Will do. I notice that with one of the books, there was a co-author with a korean name, so I am anticipating that there is at least some korean cultural research and findings in that book.