skribs
Grandmaster
- Joined
- Nov 14, 2013
- Messages
- 7,721
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This whole discussion is something that really bothers me about the TKD online community. Everyone is so pedantic about doing things exactly the way they think they should be done, and most of it is about pomp and circumstance and ceremony, and not the martial art itself.
I see @isshinryuronin 's point about @BaehrTKD , that technically these may be true, and may be an interpretation that someone has had at some point. I disagree that this is a woke attitude. It's simply acknowledging that over thousands of years of history, these very basic symbols have probably had many different meanings ascribed to them by different cultures. Trying to argue which one is "true" and "correct" is largely impossible. It's like arguing whether the sky is blue or gray. Most people would say blue, but try to tell that to a Washingtonian or Englishman.
I also see the point being made by others in the thread, is that there is an official answer from the authoritative source on Taekwondo and the Korean flag, which is the Korean government.
Then there's me, I don't know what any of these mean. I just know we show respect to the Korean flag because that's where Taekwondo comes from.
We could get all in a tizzy because someone doesn't have the same opinion as us on something entirely unrelated to the martial art itself. Especially because the vast majority of us have no connection to Korea except maybe where our Master was born and where the signature on our certificates came from. But to get to the point where "You should know this to be an instructor" is just silly. This has nothing to do with how well you can perform a poomsae (or hyung, pattern, tul, kata, form, whatever you call them), or how well you kick, or spar, or fight. It's flavor text.
Maybe I'm just saying this because it's not something I've learned and not something important to me. But it seems like everyone gets so caught up in irrelevant minutia and proving how much you know about TKD based on arbitrary trivia. And I'd be fine with that, if it weren't taken to the point that you're a fraud just because your trivial pursuit answers are slightly different.
I see @isshinryuronin 's point about @BaehrTKD , that technically these may be true, and may be an interpretation that someone has had at some point. I disagree that this is a woke attitude. It's simply acknowledging that over thousands of years of history, these very basic symbols have probably had many different meanings ascribed to them by different cultures. Trying to argue which one is "true" and "correct" is largely impossible. It's like arguing whether the sky is blue or gray. Most people would say blue, but try to tell that to a Washingtonian or Englishman.
I also see the point being made by others in the thread, is that there is an official answer from the authoritative source on Taekwondo and the Korean flag, which is the Korean government.
Then there's me, I don't know what any of these mean. I just know we show respect to the Korean flag because that's where Taekwondo comes from.
We could get all in a tizzy because someone doesn't have the same opinion as us on something entirely unrelated to the martial art itself. Especially because the vast majority of us have no connection to Korea except maybe where our Master was born and where the signature on our certificates came from. But to get to the point where "You should know this to be an instructor" is just silly. This has nothing to do with how well you can perform a poomsae (or hyung, pattern, tul, kata, form, whatever you call them), or how well you kick, or spar, or fight. It's flavor text.
Maybe I'm just saying this because it's not something I've learned and not something important to me. But it seems like everyone gets so caught up in irrelevant minutia and proving how much you know about TKD based on arbitrary trivia. And I'd be fine with that, if it weren't taken to the point that you're a fraud just because your trivial pursuit answers are slightly different.
