Jiin

I’m not Korean, I do not know how to Taekwondo. But, due to some coincidence and some ingenuity on the part of my parents, part of my first name contains a this set of letters: J-I-I-N, two ‘i’s.

In fact, due to the inability of Americans and other nationals in American to remember my extremely long first name (Jiin Joo), most people in US used to call me “Jiin”. I remember the days of introducing myself as “Gin”, you know, as in gin and tonic. Being called an alcohol makes you a tid-bit more popular too. But when they learn the spelling, no one can hide the surprise on their face, “Wow, this guy has two ‘i’s“… and two ‘o’s too.

Turns out that Jiin has its own meaning in the global namespace. Check this out:

Ji'in

Courtesy of www.karate-psv-hattingen.de

According to wikipedia, Jiin is part of the Jion kata group, which translate to love of truth. This is the quote from wikipedia (as of date of posting…):

Ji’in (translated: “love of truth”) likely originates from the Tomari-te school. Gichin Funakoshi did not teach this kata extensively, and it is less important than the other two in this group to Shotokan. However, it remains important for the execution of many simultaneous techniques and the often-repeated stances, enabling swift changes of direction while maintaining balance, power and steps of equal length. It has, however, been removed from the Japan Karate Association teaching and grading syllabus.

Alright, so I’m not as important, and have been removed from the Japan Karate Association. Wait, what about other meanings? Mind you of course (especially for the uninitiated about our Malaysian Chinese culture) that Jiin in simply one odd way to pronounce the my Chinese name, in hanyu pinyin would be Wang2 Jin3 Yรผ2 (็Ž‹็‘พ็‘œ). It in fact, appears in all my sibling’s name (the 3rd character will vary, since the first one is the family name). Therefore, there is no particular meaning to the spelling of Jiin.

And also mind you that I’m #4 currently (behind the actual common usage of the word Jiin) on Google. Yet another unknown M’sian blogger is even more powerful than me: Jiin Jiin… no I don’t know who she is ๐Ÿ™‚ Perhaps a more “famous” person would be Jiin Christou. Not discounting the Koreans of course (notice that we’re doing this English speaking thing here and I’m positive that there are plenty of Jiins in Korea), but it seems like I’ve been spending to much time online to “own” like a dozen results on Google on the first 2 to 3 search result pages.

Courtesy ofย  jiinchristou.com

Too bad I didn’t get to hear her music though (something wrong with her MP3 page). Anyway, I also want to mention one last one: jiin.com. I think this is unique to me because in 2002 when I was trying to get jiinjoo.com going, I’ve already found this site. Using some tools online, I’ve come to understand that it’s some temple (Temple COM?) in Japan (also evident when looking at the similar pages) with some information about burials, Buddhism, renewal, etc. maybe a temple introduction / aggregation site.

Most recently, after switching over to the Technology Innovation Center in SCS, the joke about the initial two man team was the coincidental double ‘i’s (my boss’s name is Chok Siing). So what is in the two ‘i’s? Innovation? What do you think?

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3 Responses

  1. Hi Jiin, this is Jiin. Sorry you couldn’t get through to hear my MP3’s on my website. You can listen to them at this website:

    http://www.myspace.com/jiinchristou

    I’ve come to learn Jiin as meaning temple, and a maker of belief. Good luck on your search for meaning.. she is around every corner.

    Love, Light, and Laughter,

    Xx Jiin

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