In
this article, Guro Buzz Smith talks about hosting exchange studnets and passing along the Kuntaw arts to them. Now that the exchange students have returned home, they are anxious to teach themselves and pass along what they know to other martial artists.
At my old Kenpo school, I had a chance to meet a young fellow from Quebec that came to the US for a few months...just to train in Kenpo at our school.
Have any of you taught exchange students? If you have, would you share your experiences?
Guro Buzz? Any favorite stories to share about teaching the exchange students?
How much time have you got? There are several hundred stories. I have invited these two students to come into this forum and share their stories ( of which they probably have 100 on me)and their insights.
Both of these students had prior martial arts backgrounds in their own countries and had requested martial arts families to sponsor them. That is how my sponsoring them came about. I was contacted by a police friend of mine saying he was contacted by the local school lookig for martial arts families and he had referred me to them. Now, first you have to understand , I am divorced,I have no children. My wife had cancer before our marriage and could not have anymore children. She had 2 from a previous marriage and they are grown.
The exchange program person contacted me and asked if I would be interested in sponsoring an exchange student, I said sure. She asked how my family would take it and how we could help the student. I told her I lived alone and then she said- sorry, but we cannot put 1 student with you, but we can do 2( something about the rules of sponsorship for singles) and she said she would get back to me.
A week later she sent me info packets on 2 students. One was almost 6 ft tall and the other barely 5 ft. One was an Aikido student and the other Hapkido.I let her know there was no Hapkido school anywhere near where I live and the Aikido was a college course. Soon after I was contacted by the students by e mail and they said they would like to try my art and would I please sponsor them. I advised her that there were element from both those arts in the art that I taught. Well the paperwork went thru and i was told of their arrival time and what I was responsible for.
I picked them up from the airport and found that they were reserved and apprehensive. The trip to my house was uneventful but when we arrived they were taken back that I owned my own home ( I think they thought i was rich). I live out in the country in an area of hardwoods. I got them settled in and showed them to their rooms where everything was and told them of my rules of my house in regards to homework, chores, and what they could and couldn't do.
Anyone who knows me , knows I collect weapontry. I have tons of knives/ swords/ guns and stuff. A lot of my things are antiques , so I had told them that my weapons were not toys and if they wanted to hold them I would be glad to let them but no swinging. But kids will be kids and I found one of my swords with the wrapping undone a short while later. One of the boys had tried to tie it to his waist. Took me a couple of days to locate how to retie the decorative wrapping sequence on the internet and to get the sword back to display status.
I had scheduled a camping trip figuring that with no outside interruptions we would get to know each other. I rened a canoe , loaded up my vanwith camping stuff and took them to a local river located close to Lake Michigan surrounded by national forest . Neither had canoed before or camped, so this was going to be their first experience to write home about.We canoed 27 miles and saw egret, heron, fish, turtle, and saw very few people. The boys had a hard time getting the hang of paddling ( running us in to every possible obstacle on the way) but soon they were pros. We set up camp as it was getting dark and we discussed what theywanted out of their trip here to the US.
The discussion went on and on and with each insight the wheels turned inside my head of how i could meet their needs. First I figured I would have to earn their respect. They knew i was a competitor as I have a lot of trophies in my house. So, I set them up. I learned a trick from an old friend and proceeded to mess with them. I set the trick up and went for it. While holding a conversation around the campfire that night I reached into the fire , grabbed a large ember and held it in my hand while I talked about there being more to martial arts than just kicking and punching and how there has to be dicipline and investment. After about 2 minutes of holding the ember- I tossed it back into the fire.
I said I could teach them how to do what I had just done and they were freaking out. WIZARD! he he. So I taught them while we were drinking cokes and talking. Yun , the S korean, was very apprehensive and tried the trick on a small scale letting out small yelps when it wasn't going right. Nikki was not sure he would even try it. But, after about an hour , they were both doing it. Trust- they trusted me to not hurt them , and I didn't. They walked away with little more than a trick - but now they trusted me.
More stories to come.
