A pair of white $4 slippers, given spontaneously to a barefoot
stranger who boarded a public bus last Saturday, catapulted a South
Korean undergraduate into the limelight.
Mr Choi Dae Ho, 22, may be a black belt in taekwondo, but instead
it was his gentle act of chivalry that put him at the centre of
online buzz.
Despite her initial objections, Mr Choi - who is here on a six-week
trip - knelt in front of the old woman, who had teared up by then,
took off his own flip-flops and put them gently on her feet.
Speaking through an interpreter yesterday, he told The Straits
Times: "It was a small gesture on my part, and it was something I
felt I had to do, or I would regret it."
Mr Choi, who is training here as part of the World Taekwondo
Federation Peace Corps, put his slippers on the old woman’s feet
(above) on a bus last Saturday. -- PHOTOS: DESMOND LIM, KIM JEONG
HEE
Said the Incheon native: "Ever since I was young, my grandmother
took care of me. She passed away when I was 15, but I've always had
a deep affection and respect for grandmothers."
Mr Choi, who majors in taekwondo at Jeonju University, is one of
four Koreans now in Singapore as part of the Korea-based World
Taekwondo Federation Peace Corps.
The generous deed, which took his companions by surprise, took
place on a rare day off from daily training. They were on board an
SBS bus returning to their Farrer Road hostel after a trip to
Sentosa with Mr Jason Tan, 22, captain of the Singapore squad.
Mr Choi's generosity left him with an unusual problem. After
alighting from the bus, he had to sprint the entire eight minutes
back to the hostel as the "pavements were scorching".
One of his fellow Koreans, Ms Kim Jeong Hee, 22, took the photo -
of him and the smiling old woman wearing the slippers - without his
knowledge. It was uploaded on Wednesday to the Singapore Taekwondo
Federation website, and was picked up by citizen journalism
platform Stomp.
While some netizens were sceptical, most praised him for the good
deed, drawing parallels with the unscripted act by New York
policeman Lawrence DePrimo, who bought boots for a barefoot
homeless man, Mr Jeffrey Hillman, 54, last November.
Mr Choi said he was surprised by the online reaction as he "did not
think it was such a big deal".
He said he has taken to Singapore, a country with people he
describes as "very kind and nice". He intends to take a gap year in
his studies to train with Singapore's national taekwondo squad.
The secretary-general of the Singapore Kindness Movement, Dr
William Wan, said it was a "wonderful gesture" that he hoped would
"inspire a gracious society".
Mr Choi, who is single and says he is not from a well-to-do family,
wants to become a taekwondo instructor for the handicapped. He has
yet to replace his pair of slippers, borrowing a teammate's pair
instead.
ST
