painful then hilarious now

I believe it was 1998 when I started my training in Tae Kwon Do. Under the guidance of an elite Korean master DJ Kim, I persevered and got to my goal of a black belt. I was often referred to as Herrando, a butchered version of my last name. I tried correcting him one time and got a look from him like one you would not want to get from an arch nemesis. After a while I realized that it was not exclusive to me. His thick Korean accent I guess prevented him from pronouncing a non Korean name effectively. My sister in law's name was "Michael's sister" for the longest time. Often I observed him to just call someone with a "Pssstt!" and a wave of a hand signaling them to come over. He would call Michael by his name though with no problem.

Michael is a fourth degree black belt also trained by Master Kim. He has been practicing his art for almost 18 years now. Two of his good buddies are multiple degree blackbelts. His brother in-law and sister are black belts too. I saw them train with Master Kim for hours and hours and Michael would come home with blisters on both hands or bruises on his limbs. Training hazards we call it. I know, I was whacked one time by a bamboo stick for not having a deep horse stance. It hurt like hell.

So when Michael told me about this video he came upon in YT, it made me remember all the painful then yet hilarious now memories of master Kim.

(edited 08-2-08)