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I am a martial artist, and for years I have had what I thought were the Korean symbols for Grace, Power and Precision put on my belts. Recently, our Grandmaster (Native born Korean) did me the honor of doing this in calligraphy, and I noticed that my older belt does not match my current belt, which does not match the calligraphy.
Is there an explanation for this, and do my belts not say what I think they do?
Calligraphy
Old belt
New Belt
The first picture contains these 3 words written in Hanja (Chinese characters, which were traditionally used to write Korean and are still used sometimes for style) and the second and third are written in the Hangeul script. The calligraphy writes the 3 words in a different order than the belts, and the two belts use different Korean words to translate these concepts:
First picture:
正確 = 정확 = precision
優雅 = 우아 = grace, elegance
力 = 력 (역) (not usually used by itself, except in Hanja form) = power
Second picture:
품위 = dignity, grace
힘 = strength, power
명확 = clearness, precision
Third picture:
은혜 = grace
힘 = strength, power
정밀 = precision, accuracy
BTW, 은혜 is grace as in grace of God. It generally means a huge favor or act of kindness, by someone much higher than you (say, a god or a king).
It does not mean grace as in a graceful motion, so that part might be a mistranslation, unless you're going to a Christian Taekwondo school. :P
