Q. Could you tell us your name and some details on your self?
A. My name is Tashi Sherpa and I study at IS 141, Queens Junior
School. I am in the eighth grade.
Q. Could you give us some details on yourself and the things
that you do?
| "But
it was disciplined and teaches you self control and stuff
and so I got more into it. Soon I was in the training group
and my master saw some talent in me and started training me
and I started doing better kicks." |
A. I first started Tae Kwon Do when I was nine. That happened
because my mom was worried about me and what I do after school
and she wanted to keep me busy. I wanted to Tae Kwon Do because
I thought it was a regular martial arts with karate-tripping stuff.
But it was disciplined and teaches you self control and stuff
and so I got more into it. Soon I was in the training group and
my master saw some talent in me and started training me and I
started doing better kicks. He saw that I was doing good and he
started taking me out of state and after that a few years later
I started to go to different states like Florida and Las Vegas
and in Orlando and Tampa in Florida. These are the few places
where I have fought.
Q. Could you tell us about some of the prizes that you have won?
A. I won the gold at the Junior Olympics in 2003. This year we
fought in Tampa for the US open and I won the bronze. There are
many small tournament around New York and New Jersey that I have
won. The small tournaments get you prepared for the bigger ones.
Now adays they want to make Tae Kwon Do better so that people
like us who don’t have that much money can go outside to
places like Korea and European countries to fight.
Q. Could you tell us about your training schedule and how you
prepare for all these events?
A. I train on Tuesdays Thursday’s and Saturdays. On Tuesdays.
I train from 8:30 to 10 and Saturdays between two and five in
the afternoon. We train to get our muscles ready and to study
our fights. That’s why we videotape our fights to study
what we have done wrong. My master also writes down my mistakes
and in his absence I also have to train so I train on other days
of the week, too.
Q. Is anything else that you do apart from Tae Kwon Do in your
spare time?
A. I play with my friends in the park in Astoria and hang out
with them. On other days when I am
not training I work from 4:30 to 8:30 and teach younger children
– they look upto me in the same way
that I look up to Master. Master thinks that I am doing a good
job and pays me 50 dollars a week.
Q. Tell us some of your likes and dislikes.
A. I like movies , comedy, science fiction horror and so on.
I like Jet Li the best, and Kung fu movies. I used to watch a
lot of Kungfu movies in Nepal. I want to travel abroad especially
to Korea because that is where Tae Kwon Do comes from
Q. Did those movies inspire you?
A.Yes I used to watch Bruce Lee movies. My pop says that he used
to look like Bruce Lee when he was young.. ( laughs…) every
kid wants to be Bruce Lee or somebody.
Q. Do you think that other kids would be interested in such
activities?
A. Yes, there used to be other kids with me and they used to
follow me. When I first came from Nepal they were here before
me and we went to learn Tae Kwon Do- and I went to camp with them
because it was boring in the summer. And when I came back they
stopped going because they felt that the
master was too hard on them. When the master sees talent, he pushes
them harder. They just quit.
Q. What motivates you to practice so much?
A. There is nobody representing Nepal.There is that Gurung kid
but he is not that great either. I almost beat this kid from Canada
and he’s more experienced than me. He’s been around
the world and he’s been doing Tae Kwon Do for I don’t
know how many years but I just started five years back.
Q.Who do you look up to?
A. I look up to my master. When he was young, he had no one to
train with. He was all alone and in the
Army. He saved up his money to build this school and he has already
built another school in Long Island. He has a big house, a very
nice girlfriend and four cars ( laughs loudly…).
Q. Do you have any girl friends?
A. No
Q. What do you aim for?
A. I want to be able to join the American team — the Olympic
team — and travel around the world. I want
to make it to the US team.
"Stop
being lazy. Do something. Quit sitting around and playing
video games. You never know
where you will get — get off your butt and do something
instead of sitting around." |
Q. Do you have any messages for the kids in New York?
A. Stop being lazy. Do something. Quit sitting around and playing
video games. You never know where you will get — get off
your butt and do something instead of sitting around.
