The other day, I got to play 족구 (jokgu) for the first time ever. Well, it was less "I played jokgu" and more "I watched the other teachers play jokgu while I stood in a corner of the court and didn't even pretend to know what I was doing."
족구*, called foot volleyball** or footvolley in the Western hemisphere, is pretty popular here, especially since it seems to feature the most popular aspects of soccer (Korea's uncontested sports craze): headers and roundhouse kicks. Here is a video of what it looks like.
All the teachers already know that I'm laughably bad at soccer. We play together every other Wednesday or so, and I usually end up in defense, charging and intimidating any forwards but contributing little else. However, they also know that I love volleyball (배구/paegu). Unfortunately for me, 족구 is about 90% soccer and 10% volleyball, so I was 90% useless to my team. I'm just glad that my fellow teachers were gracious and patient as they taught me the rules and encouraged me even when my serves went out of bounds. That's right, I can't even kick a ball in a straight line across a basketball court.
Well, my school's Sports Day (체육대회, a field day where all the students play sports and other active, outdoor games) is just around the corner. While I think it'd be fun to get in on the competition, knowing myself, I'd probably better prevent my own embarrassment and just watch from the sidelines.
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*literally, "football", whereas "축구" (soccer) is translates to "kickball", and kickball itself is 킥볼 (kikbol) or 발야구 (literally, "foot field ball")
**not to be confused with football tennis/futnet or sepak takraw
족구*, called foot volleyball** or footvolley in the Western hemisphere, is pretty popular here, especially since it seems to feature the most popular aspects of soccer (Korea's uncontested sports craze): headers and roundhouse kicks. Here is a video of what it looks like.
All the teachers already know that I'm laughably bad at soccer. We play together every other Wednesday or so, and I usually end up in defense, charging and intimidating any forwards but contributing little else. However, they also know that I love volleyball (배구/paegu). Unfortunately for me, 족구 is about 90% soccer and 10% volleyball, so I was 90% useless to my team. I'm just glad that my fellow teachers were gracious and patient as they taught me the rules and encouraged me even when my serves went out of bounds. That's right, I can't even kick a ball in a straight line across a basketball court.
Well, my school's Sports Day (체육대회, a field day where all the students play sports and other active, outdoor games) is just around the corner. While I think it'd be fun to get in on the competition, knowing myself, I'd probably better prevent my own embarrassment and just watch from the sidelines.
- - -
*literally, "football", whereas "축구" (soccer) is translates to "kickball", and kickball itself is 킥볼 (kikbol) or 발야구 (literally, "foot field ball")
**not to be confused with football tennis/futnet or sepak takraw
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