And the #1 spot goes to…
Video games. I absolutely love playing video games, but I am a bit more partial to PC games over any other platform to be honest. Quite like a lot of other people pursuing an education in computer science my age, video games were a major influence in my decision. Although I don’t have grand aspirations of making video games in the future, I am definitely still down to do so if given the opportunity. Currently, my favorite games to play are Final Fantasy XIV Online and Arknights. If you also play, hit me up!
As a close second favorite hobby, I’m also very into Japanese popular culture; anime and manga/light novels are where it’s at. My favorite anime of all time would have to be Violet Evergarden; it’s a beautifully-animated show with a deep and touching story, so I highly recommend it!
Besides video games and anime, I also take great pleasure in practicing martial arts, participating in Scouting and related activities, learning languages, and making/listening to music. I’ll talk more about these down below.
Martial Arts (I’m not the Karate Kid, sorry)
Ever since I was 5 years old, I’ve been practicing martial arts. Taekwondo, to be exact. If you don’t know what that is and or somehow have never heard of it before, it’s a Korean martial art that focuses on kicking techniques and emphasizes the personal development of respect, discipline, honor, and health. For the majority of my life I’ve been practicing taekwondo, and I have that to thank for me being relatively in shape and healthy to this day.
As a result of my dedication and hard work throughout the past many years, I’ve also managed to earn my 3rd degree black belt. I’m quite proud of this accomplishment, as not many people even make it to a black belt in the first place. When I was younger, I used to also be a prominent fighter in the competitive scene as well. Out of the ~20 tournaments I’ve competed in at the regional, state, national, and international levels, I’ve managed to earn:
- 11 bronze medals
- 2 silver medals
- 5 gold medals
Not a perfect track record by any means, but I’ve at least managed to place in nearly all of the tournaments I’ve attended. Plus, one of those medals was earned at the 2011 U.S. National Championships, or otherwise known as the 2011 Junior Olympics for the youngsters competing. Although I don’t compete anymore (no brain damage, please), I still look back at those experiences with pride at what I’ve accomplished.
Besides taekwondo, I also have experience in judo and kendo, both Japanese martial arts. Judo is characterized by throwing and takedowns, while kendo is known for being a sword-fighting sport. Although I have barely a fraction of experience in these two other martial arts compared to taekwondo, I still greatly enjoy practicing them and I consider myself to be at least somewhat decent and knowledgeable.
Scouting (and similar things)
I’ve been a part of the Boy Scouts of America Scouting program since the 1st grade. I believe that joining the Scouting program was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my entire life; I’ve learned so much and grown as a person to an extent far beyond my greatest expectations. Thanks to Scouting, I’ve picked up and developed numerous essential life skills and all-around knowledge that has on countless occasions come in handy and has even allowed me many incredible opportunities that I would not have had otherwise.
I’m also very pleased to state that I am an Eagle Scout, Scouting’s highest honor which is awarded only to Scouts who demonstrate exemplary service, leadership, knowledge, and, in the simplest terms, is a good person. Ever since the rank’s inception in 1911, only 4% of all Scouts have earned the honor of being an Eagle Scout. As a side note, every Eagle Scout is required to complete a service project known as the Eagle Project, of which mine can be found here.
Along with being an Eagle Scout, I am also a member of the Order of the Arrow, which is the national honor society of the Boy Scouts of America. Less than 20% of all Scouts have been inducted into the Order of the Arrow, and I am humbled to have joined. Scouts are elected to the Order by their peers, and being chosen is indicative of how the Scout’s friends and peers see him as an exemplary standard of what the Scout Oath, Law, and Motto represents. Like being an Eagle Scout, being a member of the Order reflects great service, leadership, knowledge, and being a good person.
The Scouting program has caused me to develop a love for the outdoors, as well as a thirst for adventure. I enjoy immensely activities such as camping, hiking, backpacking, fishing, and more. Rifle shooting, archery, SCUBA diving, and even axe throwing are other activities I have a ton of fun doing, and would not have been able to experience in the first place had I not been a Scout; I could go on and on. Regardless, throughout all these years I have always kept Scouting ideals to heart and am striving to live the best life I can.
Languages (안녕!, こんにちは!, Bonjour!)
Languages have fascinated me since I was young. I find language as a concept just so interesting; people from different cultures have different languages which means different ways to express or describe the same things that anyone else and everyone else can experience. How cool is that? Anyways, I grew up in an English-speaking household; both of my parents spoke English to each other and to me and my sister. Not really any other choice having a mom from Korea and a dad from Hong Kong, after all.
Regardless, I went to Korean school for a number of years during my youth, which was my first formal experience learning a foreign language. Like other kids forced to go to language school, I really hated it at the time. Once I hit my late teens though, I’ve regretted not keeping it up because that’s when my fascination with languages began. Around the same time as this, I was also fanatically into anime and the like. As a result, I began to self-teach myself Japanese, with the goal of being able to watch anime without subtitles. Along with this, during middle school and high school, taking a foreign language was required. I decided to take French, however this decision was mostly because my mom wanted me to learn French over Spanish or Mandarin Chinese. And from August to December of 2018, I had the opportunity to study abroad for a semester at Yonsei University, South Korea. There, I took an intensive Korean language course at the Korean Language Institute on campus, which really skyrocketed my Korean ability.
As far as my fluency goes in these languages nowadays, I unfortunately can’t attest to being fluent at all. However, I would definitely say that I have at least basic conversational skills in all three of them, and I still practice and improve each day. I can finally talk and text with my mom in Korean, and I’ve made enough progress in Japanese that I can watch anime with Japanese subtitles, not English. I don’t really have a metric for French since I’m a bit rusty, but I can still at least watch and read basic news articles and the like without too much difficulty. If I were to rank my fluency though, it’d be like this:
- Japanese
- Korean
- French
(And of course I’m fluent in English. Or at least I’d hope so.)
Music (Yes, my parents made me play piano as a kid)
Music is universally one of the greatest things in life, and anyone who argues otherwise cannot be trusted. Seriously, music plays such a major and impactful role in human society, and as one of the oldest forms of art it’s been enjoyed for tens of thousands of years. I’m no exception; music has played a significant role in my life since I first started piano lessons at the age of 4, and ever since then my love for music has done nothing but grown.
A few years after stepping into the world of music playing with piano and generally enjoying it (my teacher was mean), I began taking violin lessons as well. Violin was a pretty major twist compared to what I was used to with piano, but even though it was a bit challenging at first, I began to have a lot of fun with it as well. I continued on for a number of years playing the two, until I hit middle school. At this point, I began to get burnt out by playing piano and violin, so I stopped taking formal lessons. On the flip side, I joined my middle school’s marching band, and started learning to play the clarinet and percussion instead. That band was some serious stuff, as we’ve marched in parades such as San Francisco’s Chinese New Year Parade, Alameda’s 4th of July Parade (the longest in the country), and parades in Disneyland and Universal Studios.
After middle school though I also eventually stopped playing the clarinet. However, around the start of high school I began delving into the world of digital music production, which involves using a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) on a computer to synthesize music. Now, I don’t know if it’s just me but the self-learning curve for DAWs and the like is insanely steep, and as a result I’m not very proficient. However, I have over the years come up with a couple of compositions, none of which I’d ever release to the public however, much less anyone I know.
Nowadays, most of my musical endeavors involves following music promoters on YouTube and clicking through Spotify. I do from time to time go back to my piano and play or fire up my computer to fool around with some synths, however I’m more of a music appreciation kind of guy now. Currently, my favorite music genres are EDM, electronica, indie and alt rock, Jpop/Jrock, and hip-hop.