Episode 78: Questions and Ahnswers!

This is an episode full of questions for me that I am answering in full.  It starts from the title, as Questions and Ahnswers was suggested a couple of years ago...and now it's real!  In this episode I answer a bundle of questions that include: My nationality, my dream job or what I would do if I wasn't a Physical Education teacher.  I also talk about my bucket list, favorite shoe and clothing brands, favorite snacks and injuries and altercations that have happened in my classes.  I cover my secret talents, favorite unique app I use, and an uncommon interest that I have.  Near the end I talk about my motivation behind why I do what I do, and then give a shout out to my good friend Kelly Sopak.  Come for the questions, listen to the answers, and get more familiar with The Mic is Ahn Podcast!

Transcript

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Welcome to the Mike Is On, episode number 78. And this one is called Questions and Answers. It has been a while, and this episode has been brewing for a long, long time. Yes, it is called Questions and Answers. A-H-N-S-W-E-R-S. And the very first thing I want to do as we start this episode is to tell you how that came about. Two years ago at Northgate High School, where I'm a teacher, I'll go over that more in just a second. One of my students, who is this year a senior, Carter Goodfellow, said, Mr. On, the next time you answer questions on your podcast, you have to promise that you call it questions and answers. And I said, you know what? Goodfellow, I shall do that. Now, I didn't think it would take two years to do the next question and answers episode, but here we are, episode number 78, Questions and Answers. Now, for those of you who might be new to this podcast a little bit, uh some background before we go into the questions and answers slash answers. I am a teacher at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, California. I am a physical education teacher, and I teach mostly team sports, which is a sophomore through senior class. But this year I have a wonderful freshman class for the first time in nine years as well. So over the last few years since COVID started, I have been asking my students questions throughout the year on Google Forms. And so they get to ask me questions at the end of the first semester. And so tonight, today, whenever you're listening to this episode, I am gonna go over a batch of questions that I got asked over the last two plus years. I'll say some of their names and we'll get to answering. Now, you need to understand I enjoy uh very random questions or unique questions, but a couple things always come up, and that's gonna be answers number one and two for you. Because the one that comes up the most is what is my nationality? And this I have talked about on a previous episode a long time ago, multiple years ago. So I'll go over that right now. So on AHN is a Korean last name. My father was full Korean. My mom, you know, I'm sure she's proud of this now. I've always described her side as a whole bunch of little white things. So I am 50% Korean, and then a whole bunch of little white things. The most I am of anything else, I think is an eighth of anything, and Norwegian, I believe. However, I thought then also get asked, am I Hawaiian? And the answer is truthfully kind of, because my father's side of the family has been in Hawaii for more than a hundred years. So his grandparents, my great-grandparents, came over from Korea. Actually, we actually don't know the exact year they got over here, but they have been in Hawaii. My grandma, who passed away multiple years ago as well in her mid-90s, she was born in Hawaii, and then my father was also born in Hawaii. So, yes, half Korean, but kind of Hawaiian as well. And then in our family, we have such a wide range of cultures because my mom, two of her brothers, have lived in Canada for more than 40 years, and my aunt married a Mexican man, so my cousins, my first cousins, the I was closest to or I am closest to, were all half Mexican. My brother has married a Japanese wife, and my wife is half Nicaraguan, half Ecuadorian, so our daughters are quarter Nicaraguan, quarter Ecuadorian, quarter Korean, and quarter white. So I'm half Korean, but our family background is definitely very interesting. Now, the other question that I get asked every single year in multiple different ways. This year I was asked it by Maddie Grenalda, and it was what's my dream job? Or if I wasn't a PE teacher, what would I want to do? Or why did I decide to be a PE teacher? I'm not going to talk about that one today, but I am going to talk about other jobs that I could envision myself doing. Now, dream job, let me first say, besides being a PE teacher and a coach, I love it, right? It truly is like a dream job. But the one thing I always had in mind to want to do also would be a play-by-play radio announcer for a basketball team. That would be my dream job. If I could say, hey, for one year I want to do this, that's what I would want to do for that one year. Travel with an NBA team, be their play-by-play announcer for radio, go to all the cities, do all those things. That would be the one year if I could do that. Now, other jobs I would love to do. So if you told me I couldn't be a teacher tomorrow, things I would want to be doing, uh working at Costco would be one of them. Uh possibly working for the U.S. Postal Service, another one. Obviously, hosting this podcast, just doing it more often, uh, would be one. And working in um a college athletic department would be fun. Uh being a statistician for NBA teams would be fun, like one of the people who sits at the table and you just do uh will help with the stats during the games. PA announcer, which I enjoy doing on the side here and there already. But doing that would also be uh something I would be interested in uh in also. Uh being a voice for audiobooks, reading audiobooks. So all those different things are jobs that I would potentially enjoy doing if I couldn't do what I am doing now. However, when it comes to working, the one thing that I love so much about being a teacher is you get to see life every day. Like I'm around teens 10 months a year. And if you're around teenagers, uh you might be getting older in years, but you truly are not getting older because you have to stay at their level so you understand them, so you understand differences and similarities from previous years. But I just enjoy so much being around life, vivaciousness, you know, young people, and high school age is where I feel like I can thrive the most. All right, let's get to the next question. What is on top of my bucket list? This was asked by Avanti Merucci. What's on top of my bucket list? So here's things that have been on my bucket list that I have not done yet. Number one, I always wanted to play in the World Series of Poker. Not necessarily the main event, but at least an event in the World Series of Poker. I used to very much enjoy driving to Las Vegas to play in poker tournaments or playing in other areas. But being uh being able to uh play in the World Series of Poker would be one of them. Uh traveling and having the opportunity to travel with our family to Japan or Korea or other places. Number one, my brother and his family they live in Japan, and we haven't, I have not visited there since they moved over there, and that was almost 13 years ago. So just to have that opportunity uh would be awesome. But if we're gonna go to Japan andor Korea or China or other countries, we definitely, because we are a Disney family as well, want to have the opportunity to go to Disney parks in other countries. And now it's so great to see that on Instagram. You can look at what rides are like at all the Disney parks. So bucket list would be visiting those places, but then while they're also getting to visit those Disney parks and other uh amusement parks or thrill ride parks that there are in different areas of the world. And then a bucket list for sports would be definitely one of would be able to want to go visit every NBA arena. Uh see WrestleMania. I've seen WrestleMania. So, but to see it again is also fun. Uh so those are a few of the bucket list things. And you know, I guess since it just happened, to go see the Masters at some point would be quite awesome. But I think I'd be just as excited about eating the food, the cheap food at the Masters, as actually seeing the golf play. So, great question from Avanti. Brooks Bradburn asks, my favorite shoe brand. And this has changed a couple times in life, but by far it's ASICs. Asics are the greatest shoes. I will champion ASICs always. They have wide shoes, they're naturally wider than Nike's. So I'm a huge Asics fan. They're also great for if you have over pronation. So ASICs are the way to go. If you have questions about them, just ask me. Favorite brands of clothes, hoodies, and things like that. I get asked many times, do I sponsor Under Armour? Because most of the clothes I wear are Under Armour, because I get to wear fun clothes all the time. Our school, Northgate High School, actually is sponsored by Under Armour, but I was wearing Under Armour even before we were sponsored by Under Armour. So I am an Under Armour person all the way, as much as I possibly can be. Hoodies, though, I also wear North Face hoodies. So you got ASICs shoes, Under Armour for a lot of stuff. Actually, now I wear a lot of Guy Am Yoga shorts. So those are also quality, quality shorts. But yeah, Under Armour, ASICs, and North Face here and there when it comes to different hoodies. All right. Next question is what is Mr. Ohn's, that's what they call me at school, secret talent. So thinking about this, I think I have a few that I some of my friends and some people that know me may be aware of some of these things, but not all of them. So music has always been a big part of my life. I have played the piano since I was in kindergarten. I had nine years of piano lessons. I still enjoy playing the piano. So playing the piano is one of the talents I have that is semi-hidden. But there's a there's a grouping of people who know me that are very aware that I can play the piano, but obviously I'm not playing it every day at school. Second thing would be singing. I've been singing and whether it's in choirs or small groups since I was in grade school and high school and beyond. And so I do love singing as well and harmonizing, things like that. So playing the piano and singing. And then the third thing, when I was young, I used to cut out pictures, sports pictures from Sports Illustrated. So I don't know why this started, but I am very handy with scissors. Scissors and cutting out, you know, tough design. Not like a design, but cutting out pictures of football players, that was my big specialty back in the day. So that's something that I am very, very familiar with. I did for many, many years. I haven't done it a lot recently, but growing up, if I had a good pair of scissors and it had to be a certain kind of scissors, and you give me magazines, sports magazines, I'm gonna be happy. That's pretty much all I'm gonna need. So those are hidden talents or secret talents of mine. Okay. I also then have a question. What are some of the smartphone apps that I have that may other people may not have or may not be aware of? And this is gonna play into the next question as well. The smartphone app I think that I am the biggest fan of, and I'm not on it every day, but it is something that is amazing is Flight Radar 24. Flight Radar 24. And if you are not aware of this, go check it out. So on Flight Radar 24, you can find or track any plane in the air or at an airport around the world at any time. It will tell you when the flight took off, how high it's flying, when it's scheduled to land. You can watch a 3D of its flight. You can see it land, you can see them take off. And it if you click on the actual plane, it will show you a picture of that actual plane. So, Flight Radar 24, a huge player in my life. And if you are interested in travel, uh I would suggest checking it out. Now, this leads into the next question. What is an interest? This was asked by Meyer Stangle. What is an interest of yours that you feel is uncommon or not very popular? Well, I kind of talked about it with Flight Radar 24. Growing up, my father uh took pictures of commercial airlines. So that was his side thing. This is not for money, this is just for his hobby, was commercial airline photography. So we grew up going to the airport to take pictures of planes, or I wasn't taking pictures, my dad was. But me and my brother would go with him and we would just hang out at airports, inside airports, because pre-2001, those of us older folks know, you could literally just go hang out in airports. I mean, you'd walk right to the gate. I'm sure you could have gotten on flights that weren't yours, but you just could do everything in an airport, and we would spend so many hours there, and not outside. We would also go to the end of runways, but you didn't need to back in the day because you could go into the airport and just hang out, and he was taking pictures, and we grew up listening or watching planes, but back then you could only listen to the airline radio and hear the planes coming in, but you didn't have this information like you do now with these apps, so I can only imagine how great that would be. My dad, who's not around to see it now, would be over the moon that you could actually like see every single plane that's in the air or find any plane at any time and know exactly where it's at and when it's coming in and what angle to take pictures. So the thing that uh is definitely uncommon was the love of going to airports. Love it. And I still love going to airports, but we grew up in airports and not going to go fly, but just to go hang out and watch planes, and it was it was the greatest memories that I have from growing up, is just being able to spend time at airports with my dad and my brother and some other friends as well. Okay, next question What's the worst injury that has happened in your class? There's a two-part. And has anyone broken out into a fight over something stupid? So, this is from Mina Hill. Okay. In my classes, uh, this is my 23rd year at Northgate. We have had some injuries in my classes, just like you do in other classes. I want to knock on wood right here because we've had nothing completely horrendous, and let's keep it that way, shall we? But two different ones both involve kneecap dislocations, and one of them happened to a a boy. This was playing hockey outside on asphalt, right? So outdoor hockey, not ice hockey, just regular floor hockey, street hockey, and he just was clearing a puck upwards. He he was playing goalie, and so he was clearing a puck, and all of a sudden we saw him on the ground. We didn't know what happened, and his knee just dislocated, his kneecap, sorry, dislocated while he kind of um based himself to shoot the puck up the uh court, and it actually broke, chipped off a piece of his bone. He had to have like surgery, so it was a really long-term injury from something completely a freak, right? Nothing, no one caused it. There was no you know, contact with anybody else. It was just a weird injury. And then I had another student who had had issues with kneecaps, and he dislocated a kneecap right near the end of the school, yeah, playing Ultimate Frisbee, and then one of my students who was in SportsMed, our Sports Med program at Northgate, immediately came and helped him, and we got it back into place so we could at least get him, you know, to our training facility room so he could get help. But so kneecap dislocations, and then another crazy random one that happened once was this is right before Thanksgiving break. So I don't remember the year, it was in the teens somewhere, but it's the Friday before Thanksgiving break begins. And if you're a teacher, you know, like oh man, we were pumped, we're about to get out for Thanksgiving break. It's six period, the very last period, we are playing paddle tennis up at our tennis courts. And in in those days, our tennis courts in the middle of the courts had this small fence that jutted out, like kind of separating the courts, but not all the way. And literally, with two minutes to go in the period, before we're out for a week, one of the boys he was running backwards to uh clear a ball, so it's a ball that's going towards the fence. He's running backwards, so he's running towards the fence. He turns and hits the ball, but then continues running and somehow hits the fence and it cuts like just above his eyebrow. And those of you that know how heads bleed, it's a lot. And so he comes over to me, he's like, Hey, Mr. On, uh, and he kind of has his hand slash shirt over it, it's a white shirt, and this thing is just bleeding profusely. So that was another random wild thing that happened, you know, right before Thanksgiving break. I'll never forget it. And uh so that's just an example of some different injuries. Now, the second part of that question you may have forgotten, this is a Mina Hill question, was has anyone broken out into a fight over something stupid? Any fight that has happened in my classes ever has probably always been over something you would consider stupid. Most of the time it's friends that are messing around with each other, whether leaving the locker room or heading out to the numbers where we take role at. And usually it's just horseplay that ends up one person gets more frustrated than somebody else. So most of the time it's that. A couple times there's been people that got uh very upset playing a sport and kind of got physical, but it's always over something not awesome, like a great reason. Hey, good job. You had to fight because I I understand the reason. No, usually it is not a great reason, but it's not always a competitive situation. It's many times guys just kind of messing around with each other. Um, I've said for many years, you know, we don't truly at our school have a ton of fights, and really there have not been too many that came out of PE classes with my class. All right. Where are we going next? Oh, the other part, Madison Grinalda or Maddie Granalda, she asked the question about the dream job early on, but I forgot the second part of her question, which was your favorite snack. And she was not the only one who asked this. I get asked this a lot. Uh, so my favorite snacks right now, Kirkland popcorn, so Costco popcorn, you gotta have it. And I like mixing Cheez Its into my popcorn. I started with Goldfish, but now I've uh advanced to Cheez Its, and not just regular Cheez-Its, the Big Cheez Its. Now, I don't know how many of you are aware of these. It's basically you can buy them, they're in the stores. It's a bigger Cheez It. And boy, they just taste better. You can also get big wheat thins if you didn't know that as well. But big Cheez-Its are mixed in with Costco, Kirkland popcorn. So definitely the salt quotient is high, but those are favorite snacks. That's right now, but that's for the last few years as well. Okay, next question. This was asked by a couple people. Uh, Monica Warren, one of my students this year, says what motivates? You every day to wake up and deal with a bunch of teenagers and make us do physical activities. A really good question. What is my motivation? Well, I've always been someone who wants things to be very organized. And my whole want to be a physical education teacher came from good experiences I had with my PE teacher in high school. And I saw how much fun it could be in class. And as a teacher, I feel like it's my responsibility to set up the opportunity for students to have good experiences or great experiences. So I'm always motivated to try to get them to be active. And when I say active, I don't mean active, like let's go run around the track to be active. I mean whatever the sport or activity we're doing, my motivation is to get them to play as hard as they can, or if they're not competitive, to get more competitive. If they're ultra competitive, to get them to calm down a little bit, but to enjoy each sport for what it is. So in our classes, we play probably about 10 different sports every year. And I want them to think that every single sport is my favorite. And how do I show that? I show that by being excited when it comes to those. So you have to lead by example, right? Think of any of your teachers you've had, and I know I've talked about this before with multiple guests as well. The teachers that you remember, the teachers that you knew were bought into what they were teaching, whether it was science, math, English, whatever, in my life, life it's physical education. But it's my responsibility to show them that I am truly into what I am doing as well. So the motivation, I want people, if they look at the my class, to know that there's a lot of fun being had, but there's students being active, they're getting better, they're competing, they're laughing, they're yelling, they're having fun. And that's on a day-by-day, minute-by-minute basis. So I try to find out what makes each student uh click and tick. And what frustrates them if they're frustrated, can I talk them down? Or if they're having a tough day, can I help motivate them to at least compete and get your blood flowing in our class? So all these things motivate me. My father motivates me. My father has passed away like almost 20 years ago, but I always think like, what would I want him to see if he was there? Right. And then I also think, how would I want my daughters to get taught? And then I also think, how would I want to be taught? So all these things I think about on an everyday basis when it comes to how I am dealing with my classes. And, you know, it's a season, right? We have a 10-month season in our classes every year. So I'm gonna see these students every day for 10 months, and it's my job to make them have the best experience in my class that they can. So great question from Monica Warren. All right. The last one I'm gonna do today is a question that does I I forgot this at the beginning. It I get asked it all the time. Favorite student, least favorite student. Every year. Every period. Who's the favorite student? Who's your least favorite student? Do you have a favorite student? Do you have a least favorite student? The truth is I don't. And here's why. I want every every class period is going to have students who need more attention, students who need less attention. I don't want to be bored. And let me tell you something, teaching high school is never gonna be boring. Teaching PE is never gonna be boring. Every class is gonna have some people that just naturally screw around. I'm dealing with 15 and 16 and 17-year-old boys and girls on an everyday basis. Now I will say the 15-year-old boy, male, is an interesting concoction of spirit and maturity, kind of, hopefully, hopefully gaining as the year goes on, but it's what makes life fun. So when students see me getting on, you know, one or two people that I have to get on more so than others because they're screwing around or whatever, it doesn't frustrate me like make me not like my job. This is what my job is, this is what my life is, right? So I know there are gonna always be some people who are crossing the line, putting their toes on the line, way below the line, depending on what the behavior is or things like that. But that's the whole idea. Like this is okay. Also, on the opposite end, there are always gonna be students in my classes that I genuinely think they are awesome human beings, or I see them become even better human beings in their time with me. It doesn't mean they're my favorite. I enjoy their personalities, right? I might think they're even funny. Uh I happened to even tell a student just today that I've noticed him growing up as the year goes on, right? And I enjoy his personality. And at the beginning of the year, I was like, I don't know what this guy's thinking. But of course, he's 15 years old, so what's he gonna be thinking? But this is what makes it fun. So if you think I have favorites or least favorites, I appreciate everybody's different styles and personalities. And some classes, you're gonna have maybe eight to ten people that need to hear my voice in a stronger manner throughout the year. Some classes maybe one or two. In some classes, maybe it's they're too quiet. I'm trying to motivate them more so because they don't have natural leaders who are leading by example. So it's a mixture. I don't have a favorite favorites or least favorites. There are those that are easier to talk to than others, but that is the most direct answer I can give on that. Okay, last thoughts before we leave this episode. So, right now I am taping this um in April of 2026. And just recently, one of my former guests, one of my good friends, Kelly Sopak, became the head coach of Nevada women's basketball. And I just want to touch on that. If you're listening to this episode, Kelly Sopak, who had been coaching at Ciron Delette previously at Merrimony High School, and before that, Northgate High School, which is where we coach together. He is now the head coach of Nevada Women's Basketball. And I am so happy and so proud. Two different episodes I've had him on, one of them just recently, so go check it out. But I am so happy and so honored to have been able to be with him at the beginning of his high school coaching career and see him make a difference to so many great female athletes. And now to see him all of a sudden jump to the Division I level is great. Maybe someday we'll be able to have him back on, but you know, he's he's getting a little big timer now, but it's okay. He is always going to be a very, very close friend of mine. So I just want to give him a shout out. And for any of you wondering, go check out those two episodes with Kelly Sopak. I promise you, there are great gems and nuggets and a lot of laughs in those episodes as well. Okay, a reminder: you can always send in questions to me that you would like me to answer either on Instagram or by email. And you might be saying, well, how do I get in touch with Instagram or email? Instagram is Oni B P E. A-H-N-I-E-B-P-E. Email is themicison at gmail.com. That's the M I C is A-H-N at Gmail.com. You can ask questions there as well. You can also listen to previous episodes, because as I told you earlier, there's been more than 75 previous episodes. So go check any one of them out. They're mostly evergreen. You can hear interviews with former students, people doing unbelievable things. Always check out what it says about the episodes. Many of the uh interviewees are former students, not every single one, but I promise you there are some really, really great people that you can listen to on these podcasts, including the man I just mentioned, Kelly Sopak, including Dave Gomez, my cousin, including Lauren Curry Sherbikov. Just check them out and just know you're not behind if you haven't listened to any. You're just not caught up yet. All right, a huge thanks to all of you who have always paid attention. We have been going since November of 2020, and here we are in April of 2026. How time flies. I will be back sooner rather than later with more episodes, more questions and answers, and more interviews. And if you have any suggestions, feel free to get in touch with me on Instagram or on Gmail to let us know what you want to hear next. All right, have a great day, and we will see you later.