Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu...Oh my...

Liam was in a Tae Kwon Do class at the orphanage. We have many pictures of him at his class and we were told that he was very good. He'd already advanced through 3 belt levels. When he came home and started seeing all the kids going to their activities, he wanted one for himself. We took him to see the local (IMPRESSIVE) Tae Kwon Do school. Think army of kids in full Gi, working in unison. Liam was not impressed. We went to see the Karate Kid movie and it was decided that he wanted to take Kung Fu class because it was Chinese.... Kung Fu Gooood, Tae Kwon Do baaaaad... according to Liam. So the search was on for a suitable Kung Fu class that didn't have us driving into Chinatown.

We went shopping in a local chinese market and saw an ad taped up in a window for childrens Kung Fu classes. The Kung Fu academy name was very familiar to me as it was the school from Chinatown that performed the Lion Dance at our Families with Children from China, Chinese New year parties. I had been running the organization for my area for 12 years and knew Sifu Chan well. The school even agreed to do a Lion Dance throughout our kids elementary school on Chinese New Year for their China studies culmination day. I was thrilled to see they were offering classes locally and called to get information.

We scheduled a day that Liam could go observe a class. Well, class is not really the right word...Apparently the Kung Fu studio in Chinatown was hit hard by the Big Dig in Boston and they had to relocate. They are basically starting over, even though they have the same adults that have been with them for years, there essentially is NO formal program yet for kids. We observed a lone child, in an office bldg, in an office (small) with Sifu Chan doing some amazing Kung Fu. This child was wearing sweat pants, not the impressive Gi with the belt, and was working one on one. Frankly, if it were up to me, the impressive school with the large flock of kids would have won my vote, but Liam had different ideas. He LOVED it. He LOVED Sifu Chan, plus Sifu Chan speaks to him in Mandarin, a nice plus.

I spoke to the lone student, told him how good he was. I asked if he'd been working with Sifu long and he told me 3 months. I was impressed and asked if he'd had prior experience. He told me that he had switched from Tae kwon Do. When I asked why, he said he wanted to learn more. He wanted to be challenged!.

Liam has had 2 classes in that office bldg with Sifu Chan and he absolutely glows during the lessons. He is very proud of his Kung Fu classes and I love that it's an old friend of FCC who is teaching him.

This is a picture of the orphanage tae kwon do class doing some demonstrations . (Liam is on far left)


This is Liam's second Kung Fu class with instructor Joe, and Sifu Chan.