Tae Kwon Do - Polarities Between Countries and Cultures

While it is difficult to state that Tae Kwon Do is one of the most popular martial arts today, it is certainly not a rarity in the USA. One may be able to locate at least a single Tae Kwon Do dojo in a county. Sparring and forms competitions are held in public and attended by a large number of people. The martial art has certainly spread widely in terms of recognition and participation. On the other hand, Korea, the birthplace of Tae Kwon Do, leads to an entirely different conversation. Little children train in dojos that every neighborhood normally has. Elementary schools provide Tae Kwon Do as an after-school activity, and once a student advances into college, he is able to major in the martial art. To shorten, Tae Kwon Do is an extremely normal aspect of life in South Korea.

Yet, the difference in popularity and normalcy is not the only thing that one notices when contrasting the USA and Korea. Perhaps it is the fact that Tae Kwon Do is such a regular thing in South Korea that has melted into the people’s every-day lives, or how academics is held in an extraordinarily high regard. Whichever reason it may be, each country’s perspective on Tae Kwon Do is vastly different from one another.

To begin, one of the first things that are noticeable when looking at both the USA and South Korea is the students. It is obvious that in the USA, people of a diverse stretch of genders, ages and ethnicities come to train in a dojo. Adults, both color and black belts, attend classes regardless of being a student or having a job. Children, whether in kindergarten, elementary school, middle school or high school, also train alongside the adults. When looking at a dojo of Tae Kwon Do in A, one should surely notice the variety of the trainees in a class. However, the same cannot be stated when regarding South Korea. Most, if not all, students that train in South Korea are children. Adults tend to not regard Tae Kwon Do as something serious and mature, which may be contributed to by the fact itself that children make up the population of the trainees. While it is indeed true that some adults make a living out of Tae Kwon Do and a fair number of others professionally indulge in sparring or study the martial art, what is commonly seen in a dojo are little children. When school ends, they crowd to a dojo in their neighborhood. After an hour of training, they might walk home or be picked up by their parents. Also, there is also the fact that most, if not all, of the children that train in Tae Kwon Do at a young age become black belts when equally as young. Overall, it can be said that it is hard for the students of younger age to consider Tae Kwon Do as seriously as the older students in the USA do.

Aside from the matter of the students, the dojos themselves can also be a topic of discussion. As mentioned above, there is a great difference in terms of numbers of dojos when contrasting South Korea and the USA. Perhaps the statistics somehow contribute to the quality of the martial art education in the two countries. In Korea, it is almost as if the dojos are mass-produced. Every dojo has a different name and a logo, a master and is under a unique branch by itself most of the times. There are little and big Tae Kwon Do competitions in the community. A number of dojos give out black belts to little children who have trained for a year; and when speaking of belts, one can see that most of the belt systems differ by dojos in South Korea. Since there are so many Tae Kwon Do dojos in the country, it is sometimes difficult to find one that provides ‘proper’ training as a black belt may require. And when putting an American and Korean dojo side-by-side, it is noticeable that American dojos usually hold themselves to a higher standard.

It is not to say that all of the dojos in the USA are of high-quality and made of proper training. There are many ‘McDojos’, where a martial art is taught often in an improper way for profit. However, the observation cannot be changed that in the USA Tae Kwon Do is often a serious training of mind and body that all ages can participate in, while Korea has transformed Tae Kwon Do into an entertaining sport for little children and a dojo into what nearly represents a babysitting facility.

This can lead into a whole another discussion of how Tae Kwon Do is regarded in the eyes of the citizens of both countries. To Koreans, Tae Kwon Do is something that has existed by the people for many centuries, evolving in its form and techniques. It is very common, and is often seen as a simple sport where sparring and medals are seen as the major parts of the martial art. Over time, Tae Kwon Do in Korea has been transformed into a competitive ‘sport’, not a ‘martial art’ that involves the honing of both mind and body. “This is what Tae Kwon Do is really about,” states a comment on the video of a Korean black belt doing an elaborate kick. “We’re the best!… Especially since it came from our country.” It shows clearly that Koreans hold the physical skills aspect of Tae Kwon Do in a higher light than the training of the mind. Additionally, when training in Korea, it may be difficult to truly do any mental training, especially considering the fact that most of the students, as mentioned many times above, are children. When taking a look at the rest of the world, however, it is clear that the foreign people do not think of Tae Kwon Do as a simple sparring sport. They see it as a martial art that is not taught to simply produce sparring champions, but to learn respect, perseverance, and many other moral values of Tae Kwon Do. It is as if in Korea, Tae Kwon Do is simply being able to jump and kick high enough to break boards in demonstrations—while in some other countries, it is something more.

Another factor that is starkly noticeable when thinking of the differences between the USA and Korea—promotion tests. In both countries, to be fair, the color belts test in unique ways in every dojo, with the testing candidates being judged on their breaks, forms, sparring, Korean vocabulary, and many more. Yet, black belt tests are different. “It was a bit overwhelming and confusing,” a black belt who has tested in Korea says. “All the testers were in one big gym, and I think we did some kind of warm-up altogether. Everybody did the same thing and everybody passed… and of course it was loud. Most of the people in there were little children… two kids next to me were just laughing and joking loudly and just wouldn’t stop, and although I really shouldn’t be, I guess I was a little disappointed.” It is obvious from the quote that the different promotion test in Korea has a big impact on the black belts.

On the contrary, black belt tests in the USA is held in a different manner. Although the tests are very different depending on the dojo, it can be said for sure that all black belts are tested and judged individually instead of all of them testing in the same manner at the same time.

So why are the two countries so different when practicing the same martial art? To be stated in general, Korea and the USA are two separate countries. This doesn’t only mean that the languages are different—cultures, values, the ‘ideal’ society, financial situations, etc. all differ greatly. For instance, there is the difference in how people think of the term ‘martial arts’ itself. “I think it’s really cool,” a citizen in the USA says. “It’s a good way to do self-defense.” Yet, the opinion differs greatly when the same question is asked to a Korean. “It’s just something you see every day,” it is stated in a Korean article. “Everybody does it. Dogs, cows, they all do it.” Depending on cultural variance, perceptions of the same subject are interpreted differently, which is often times contrasting.

Although, it should also be considered that Tae Kwon Do hasn’t been in the USA for a long time compared to Korea. Has the progression and spread of Tae Kwon Do merged the martial art into the people’s daily lives and consequently formed it into something that everybody does—a sport for entertainment, a training for fighting alone? Is it the sore difference between the cultural values of the two countries? Even though the form of Tae Kwon Do is very different, it is sometimes painfully obvious that most of the trainees in Korea and the USA hold Tae Kwon Do as an important aspect of their lives. Is the history of the martial art affecting the Korean perspective of it, or could it be what the citizens of both sides in the argument value more—education and success against uniqueness and freedom—?

It is clearly recognized that there are major factors that contributed to the near split of Tae Kwon Do between Korea and the rest of the world. Even though Tae Kwon Do originated from Korea, the people of the country has a low opinion of it; in contrary, other countries think of it as a true martial art. For now, only the future holds what Tae Kwon Do will become in the various countries on Earth after following decades.