Karate vs. Taekwondo

Chinese warriors took "kara hand" into 17th-Century Okinawa where it developed into "Okinawa-te" (Okinawa hand) that Master Gichin Funakoshi later introduced into Japan. Japan only recently changed "kara hand" to mean "empty hand" or karate. Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese still recognize both words as meaning the same thing. Through this continuous change and with additions from various countries, modern karate gradually developed into what it is today.

Taekwondo

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art. Taekwondo means: Kick Punch Way - "tae" means kick or foot, "kwon" means punch or hand, and "do" means way of. The term karate has become the generic name for any of the kicking and punching martial arts. Basically, the Korean term "Taekwondo" means the same as the Japanese term "karate."

In 1955, the Korean Taekwondo Federation adopted Taekwondo as the official name for the new Korean martial art. So, the word Taekwondo encompasses all the previous terms for Korean martial arts, such as "Subak" and "Taekkyon." However, many Korean martial art schools still use the olden names such as "Tang-soo-do" (kara hand way), "Kong-soo-do" (empty hand way), or "Tae-soo-do" (foot hand way) to describe their version of Korean martial arts.