Poomse (and other spellings) is the Korean equivalent of kata.
I know little of boxing but lean toward TKD cautiously, depending on the schools and instructors themselves.
As waynea said, you need to visit the schools. There are different styles of TKD. You want to find a style, a school, and instructors that fit you and your goals.
Some schools largely teach just competition-style point sparring, as sg516 said. Some schools are "McDojos": take your money and give you a black belt. (Avoid, please.) Some schools may offer a separate self-defense class. Also at some dojangs, there will be black belts who have cross-trained in other martial arts and who may teach special classes.
In addition to participating in a class, ask also if you can watch a class, especially a black belt-level sparring class. The way the black belts spar should give you a good idea of the contact level of the school, the work that goes in to make each black belt, and how much non-TKD work they get (throwing, grabs, takedowns, submissions, etc.).
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