STUDENTS OF THE MONTH!

Congratulations to our students of the month,

Renee Spei and Joe Zarif!!!

FULL NAME: Renee Spei
OCCUPATION: Actress/voice over talent
BELT RANK, TRAINING SINCE: March 2009

Q: Describe yourself in 3 words.
A: I love everybody, spiritual

Q: Name one thing you wish you knew before joining Tae Kwon Do.
A: I wish I walked into Jun Chong's years ago! Do it now! Boldness has genious.

Q: Your biggest vice:
A: Whatever I decide to do, I must give it 200%! Whatever it is!

Q: Your favorite food?
A: Jerry deli's cindy salad

Q: How has Tae Kwon Do changed you?
A: Tae kwon do, with Jun Chong, teaches me to focus, discipline, and respect way beyond martial arts, about life!

Q: What is the most embarassing thing that happened to you in Tae Kwon Do?
A: I'm not embarassed - I love to paint my toenails the color of my belt, so right now they're yellow.

Q: What are your hobbies?
A: I'm a comedic actress! I want to work with Happy Madison Productions, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Will Ferrell.

Q: What made you want to join Tae Kwon Do?
A: It's a part of who I am inside. You either love it, or you don't, I love it!

Q: What are you best at in Tae Kwon Do?
A: Helping others! Especially new students.

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
A: Best actress at Academy Awards. I will have a black belt around my waist, still with Master Chong. Make our world a happier place through my art.





FULL NAME: Joe Zarif
EDUCATION LEVEL: 6th grade
BELT RANK, TRAINING SINCE: Red belt double stripe, training for 7 years.

Q: Describe yourself in 3 words.
A: Funny, goofy, hardworking

Q: Name one thing you wish you knew before joining Tae Kwon Do.
A: I wish I knew that I shouldn't take Master Rhees class for a first class as a red belt.

Q: Your biggest vice:
A: I always look back to see performing students during class.

Q: Your favorite food.
A: Pasta and salad

Q: How has Tae Kwon Do changed you?
A: Tae Kwon Do has increased my mental power emotionally and has improved my ability and balace.

Q: What is the most embarassing thing that happened to you in Tae Kwon Do?
A: I was a blue stripe and I actually forgot my stances and punches of all sorts.

Q: What are your hobbies?
A: Basketball, soccer, swimming.

Q: What made you want to join Tae Kwon Do?
A: I just loved the techniques that the people were doing.

Q: What are you best at in Tae Kwon Do?
A: I believe that I am best in form #9.

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
A: I see myself as a second degree black belt and in 11th grade at the Buckley School.

Fun Foto of the Week!

This week's fun foto is of Master Mason Williams. He is probably about 5 or 6 years old, but look at all the trophies he's won!!! His father, Master Greg Williams, is one of Master Chong's longest student. He stands proudly behind his son.


If you have any fun photos that you'd like to submit, email them to me at junchong411[at]gmail.com. Enjoy!

Jun Chong is Entrepreneur of the Week!

Grandmaster Jun Chong was chosen as Entrepreneur of the Week this week through Marley Majcher's business "But Are You Making Any Money?"
Check out his exclusive interview on her blog!

Congratulations on 36+ years of business!

Fun Foto of the Week!

While cleaning out the studio and my house, I stumbled across some old, fun photos of out beloved studio and all the students that have walked through our doors. I thought it'd be fun to post a new picture up on our blog whenever I find one to share in the fun and nostaglia!

This week's photo is a CLASSIC! Master Chong poses with brothers Simon and Phillip Rhee at the old 6401 Wilshire school location. This picture was taken circa 1977 when programs were only $15 a month!!
If you have any good photos that you'd like to submit, email them to me at junchong411[at]gmail.com. Enjoy!

WUMAO Weapons of the Orient Seminar

The World United Martial Arts Organization, sponsored by Ad Deliery, hosted our annual Weapons of the Orient seminar last Sunday May 3rd at the West Los Angeles location of Jun Chong Tae Kwon Do. Participants came from various schools including Abrigo Martial Arts, Chul Jin Martial Arts, Jun Chong TKD, and Jun Chong Martial Arts, totaling to 78 students at the seminar.

Elaine Sir learns to use Escrima sticks.

Three weapons were introduced in three sessions during the seminar: Nunchuks, Escrima, and Kendo. Everyone was able to practice each weapon first-hand, learning the basic forms and strikes of each weapon and how they are used in combat.

Joe Zarif charges with the Kendo stick.

All participants received a free commemorative shirt as a gift for participating as well as a Certificate of Completion. At the end of the seminar, the masters each gave a brief demonstration of each weapon and students were able to purchase weapons and DVD's to practice at home.
Thank you to all the instructors who taught the seminar as well as to the assistants who helped throughout the sessions:
Nunchuks-Master Chul Jin, Hugo Cortinez, Stephanie Trott, Siaka Harding
Escrima-Alain Rono, Dexter Parker, Steve Kaplan
Kendo-Jay Schlaugh, Chuck Taylor
For information on escrima, nunchuk, and kendo classes at Jun Chong Tae Kwon Do, please check our website or call (323)658-7570, (310) 979-9222. For more pictures, check out our media gallery!

A great job to all of our participants!

209th Testing Complete!

We just finished our 209th Promotional Testing! Thanks so much to our black belts for taking time out of their day to judge our students:
Jim Goller
Richard Alonzo
Spencer Groh
Jay Schlauch
Rila Chartier
Raef Chartier
Mason Williams
Ada Chong
Yong Chong
Stephanie Trott
Elizabeth Oreck
Lance Gohl
Luis Gaitan
James Huang
Andrew Jones
Sounds like we had a great test! 8 students double-tested this month and several students got an OUTSTANDING. Congratulations!

Remember to memorize your Student Creed!

The testing results post Monday, April 27th. If you passed your test, we will be having our Belt Ceremony on Friday, May 1st at the end of your REGULARLY scheduled class (for example, if you are a purple belt, come to your regular purple belt class on Friday and at the end of class we will have a ceremony to give you your next belt).
If you can't make the belt ceremony, no worries! Starting Saturday, May 2nd you can come to your new belt-colored class and we will be awarding belts before or after class.
Check out our schedule for your new belt on our website!
And here's your daily dosage of medicine:

Make your own signs at Sign Generator!

Check Scam, Part 2!

And the plot thickens!
So I thought after notifying the FBI on Tuesday about this fake check would close th matter, but I arrive on Wednesday to find out that the fradulent check was sent via UPS from a different address than on the check, a Timken Company in Pennsylvania (the check was from CCI in Virginia).
Then the phone rings and it's a man from the United Kingdom asking if we had received a check from him. I realize this man, Gudjohnson, had emailed me regarding information for his son to train in America for 2 months and I gave him our rates and he told me he'd send me a check, although the check he sent was way too high and it didn't have any information on it from him. So now he's complaining that he's been emailing and calling us every day since Monday to see if we got his check and that something was wrong with it. When I ask him what company it was coming from or why it doesn't have his name or information on it, he says his assistant sent it so he didn't know. When I started asking for a phone number and more info, he hung up on me.
I wrote him an email right after asking for the UPS tracking number and decided to call Suntrust bank again, just to be sure that it wasn't a real check. Why would someone call every day to make sure we got a check if it was fake? Could scam artists have that much nerve?!? I also left a message with The Timken Company (who sent the UPS envelope) to ask them if they knew about a check mailed from their company.
The next day I get an email from "Gudjohnson" confirming the UPS tracking number, the dollar amount, and the CCI Company it was from. Then he told me that his assistant had made a mistake and sent us our amount plus the airfare amount for his son's ticket to America. His solution was for us to go to Western Union and wire the excess $2000 to his "travel agent" in New York. HA! I simply replied that we were not comfortable taking care of his finances with his "travel agent" and that he'd have to cancel the check from his end. A few hours later he called the studio again and Master Chong yelled at him!!!!
Today I got a call from the Timken company telling me that someone has been sending fradulent checks out using his UPS account and that he's already notified the FBI. I also called the FBI again and he told me these are known as "Nigerian" scams. I always thought Nigerian scams were the letters they'd send people about a rich Nigerian guy who needs to borrow your money until he can get out of the country and pay you back with extra, but apparenty it's any situation where these scammers (usually from Nigeria or Canada cuz it's harder to track or sue them) always send you a fake check for WAY too much money and then you deposit the check and wire them the extra money from your own funds. Then by the time the check comes back as fake, you've already given them your own good money and you get nothing in return. SCAMMERS!!!!! The FBI guy told me that his last call was a guy who had lost $60,000 in Nigerian scams!
So that's the whole dramatic week-long saga! I just couldn't believe the scammers could have the audacity to call us every day and bug us about his check!! For a minute I wasn't sure if this guy really did send a check and all he wanted was his son to come take martial arts classes...but even if he was, I'm not about to go and waste my time going to Western Union and blablabla! It's just sad because there are plenty of small businesses who would see that money as a great thing during these bad times or who just don't know any better. =(
Here's the fake check below. Notice the "Exchange for Cash" in the memo and the little warning box on the receipt portion about contacting them for questions (but there's no phone number) and not to cash it if you don't know where it comes from (to cover themselves legally). Too bad we couldn't giv them a little martial arts lesson of our own!