Dear friends, dear students, dear colleagues,

The fact that a whole year has passed since my last New Year’s greetings from South Africa would be scarcely believable if I used my personal perception of time as a standard, rather than the generally accepted calendar.
It is a well-known but always amazing phenomenon that when there is a great deal happening, time seems to fly by.

I will refrain from any retrospection or review of this year’s most important events, as those interested have easy recourse to our WTW-online archives, in which everything of note is readily available.

Today is the start of a new year! Reason in itself to look forward!
One of the highlights of 2008 will certainly be the WT university course –
in May the students will be on their way to Plovdiv to be examined for their Bachelor’s degree. After four years of study, the first holders of a completely new academic qualification will return to Germany as Bachelors of Sports Education specialising in WingTsun.
Some of these students are already resolved to embark on a further course of study for the Master’s degree in September, and the second intake for the Bachelor’s degree is scheduled to commence its studies at the same time.

The big International Seminar will also take place in May. Following the enormous success of last year’s seminar in Lübeck, we now plan to spend three days devoting ourselves to our shared passion at a venue very close to Langenzell Castle. The
Manfred-Sauer Trust – which is already familiar to some from the last instructor’s meeting and the Leadership event – provides the ideal conditions for an outstanding seminar. As in Lübeck, a number of very highly graded EWTO masters will be teaching in addition to Grandmaster Bill and myself.
In addition to these highlights, there are numerous projects in the offing which it would go beyond the bounds of a New Year’s greeting to list.

And anyway, there is no harm in having a few surprises in store for the New Year.

It remains for me to wish you all a happy and successful 2008.

Your
Si-Fu/Si-Gung
Keith R. Kernspecht

Incidentally, from the South Africa seminar again