Korea is host to a ton of different sports, both those native to Korea and those that have been brought over and have risen in popularity. The names of each can be quite interesting when you break them down, so today we’ll take a look at the sports in Korea and learn a bit of history along the way!
렛츠고!
The easy ones are the ball sports:
Korean Word Breakdown 축구 (Soccer) 축 (kick) + 구 (ball) 야구 (Baseball) 야 (field/wild) + 구 (ball) 농구 (Basketball) 농 (basket) + 구 (ball) 배구 (Volleyball) 배 (push/reject) + 구 (ball) 탁구 (Table Tennis) 탁 (table) + 구 (ball) 야구 (Baseball) 야 (hit) + 구 (ball) 당구 (Billiards / Pool) 당 (hit/strike) + 구 (ball)
But kickball, which seems to be taken by soccer is actually:
발야구 = foot + baseball
Neat!
On to the Konglish sports -- these are pretty easy to remember as they are exactly the same word:
- 골프: Golf. Very popular among business professionals in Korea.
- 테니스: Tennis.
- 볼링: Bowling.
- 배드민턴: Badminton. (Very common to see people playing this in public parks).
- 스케이트: Skating.
- 핸드볼: Handball.
Next are some Korean native sports!
- 씨름: Traditional folk wrestling. It’s a trial of strength performed in a circular sandpit. You can even find paintings of this by the famous artist 김홍도 from the 1700s! Unlike other styles of wrestling, it’s all about using the 삿바 (fabric belt) to trip or lift your opponent.
씨름 by 김홍도
- 양궁: Archery. Archery goes way back in Korean culture (over 1,500 years!) and Korea is world-famous for this. They are scary good at archery and can begin training at the age of 4 or 5. The Korea's women team alone has remained undefeated in the Olympics since 1988. And combined for both men and women, Korea has won gold 22 out of the past 23 olympics!
Wikipedia page of most decorated olympic archers
Finally are the sports that are "the way" or "the path" (도):
- 태권도: While it draws from ancient Korean martial arts like 태껸, the modern version of 태권도 was unified in the 1940s and 50s. It was influenced by Karate (which many Korean masters studied during the occupation) but was intentionally evolved to emphasize unique, powerful Korean kicking techniques. 태권도 literally means "The way of the foot and fist"🦶👊
- 합기도: 합 (harmony) + 기 (energy) + 도 (way). The way of harmonizing energy. The founder, Choi Yong-sool, studied Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu in Japan. When he returned to Korea, he combined those joint-lock techniques with traditional Korean kicks and strikes. It is essentially a "Koreanized" cousin of Aikido. If you have seen a martial arts movie where someone uses an attacker’s own momentum to throw them or locks their wrist to subdue them, this most likely was 합기도.
- 유도 (유 (soft/gentle) + 도 (way)) & 검도 (검(blade/knife) + 도(way)) : These two specifically started in Japan.
- 유도 was created by Jigoro Kano in Japan (1882).
- 검도 evolved from Japanese samurai swordsmanship. However, Korea has made them their own. Korean 검도 uses slightly different terminology and focuses more on the competitive/sport aspect rather than the ritualistic Japanese tradition.
What's your favorite sport to play? Let us know! 🥋