Learn 5 most popular sports
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| Hi, everyone! I’m Jaehwi. Welcome back to Korean Top Words. In this video, we will be talking about top 5 most popular sports. Let’s begin! |
| 1. 축구 (chukgu) "soccer" |
| The first we have is 축구 (chukgu) "soccer". So in many sports names in Korean, you can find this word 구 (gu) because that means “balls” and so 축구 (chukgu) can be played with a ball like soccer ball so that’s why we have the word 구 (gu) in the name of the sports. Other names that we have 구 (gu) is also 야구 (yagu) “baseball” and also 농구 (nonggu) “basketball”. So if you find the word 구 (gu) in the name of sports, you can consider that as kind of related to doing something with a ball. |
| 한국은 2002년 월드컵 축구 경기를 개최했습니다. (Hangugeun icheoninyeon woldeukeop chukgu gyeonggireul gaechoehaetsseumnida.) "South Korea hosted the World Cup soccer game in 2002." |
| 2. 씨름 (ssireum) "Korean wrestling" |
| So it looks kind of similar to sumo in Japan, but they have different rules. I never got a chance to see the game in person, but I remember I often watch the game on TV when I was very young because when it was peak holiday season, I think 씨름 (ssireum) was one of the sports that you can easily see on TV because it’s kind of traditional. |
| So in a sentence we can say - 씨름은 한국의 전통 운동입니다. (Ssireumeun hangugui jeontong undongimnida.) "Ssireum is a traditional Korean sport." |
| 3. 등산 (deungsan) "hiking" |
| So 등산 (deungsan) is based on two Chinese characters; 등 (deung) is meaning something like climbing, going up and 산 (san) means “mountains” so it literally means climbing up to the mountains. |
| So we also use the word 하이킹 (haiking) in some cases, but 하이킹 (haiking) sounds a little bit lighter than 등산 (deungsan). 등산 (Deungsan) seems to be more heavy sports or not kind of light sports and I think this is the most popular sports these days in South Korea. I can see even my mother often do 등산 (deungsan) over the weekends because you can easily find mountain around your town in South Korea and just climb up there and all the paths and things in the mountains are very well organized so you don’t have to have a heavy gear to do 등산 (deungsan) “hiking” in South Korea. You can easily just find a mountain nearby and just do 등산 (deungsan) “hiking” just over the weekend. |
| So if you’re in Seoul, I think the best and easiest place to do 등산 (deungsan) “hiking” would be 남산 (Namsan). 남산 (Namsan) is located at the very center of the city where you can find the Seoul tower. You can go up there very easily. It only takes about 30 minutes and up there, you can see the entire view of Seoul so I think that’s one place that you can easily go for hiking. |
| 한국에는 산이 많아서 등산하기 좋습니다. (Hangugeneun sani manaseo deungsanhagi josseumnida.) "There are many mountains in Korea, so it is good for hiking." |
| 4. 야구 (yagu) "baseball" |
| So as you can see, there is a word 구 (gu) in the name of the sports “baseball” 야구 (yagu) because you play the sports with a ball. I think 야 (ya) here means something like “yard” like outside because that’s typically what you do. I remember when I was a kid, I was a fan of the baseball team named 오비 (obi) “OB”. 오비 (Obi) “OB” used to be the company making beer and now they changed their name to 두산 (dusan) “Doosan”, but still they have the baseball game. Yeah I think that was kind of trendy like many boys, they join the kind of junior club of big baseball teams to be a part of the committee outside their own school. So I remember I was going into some sports events. I met some of the kids from different schools. You can easily also watch their baseball game on TV or you can actually go to a stadium mostly in Jangsu which is in the eastern-south part of Seoul and if you find a good game, you can say - 야구 경기 보러 가자. (Yagu gyeonggi boreo gaja.) "Let's go see a baseball game." |
| 5. 농구 (nonggu) "basketball" |
| I think this is the most popular sports that high school kids do at a school because to play soccer, you need a big space and for baseball too. I don’t think any of my friends in high school played baseball, but "basketball" 농구 (nonggu), I remember my friends often play this sport whenever they get a chance because it just need a smaller space and just need a very few people. So I think even at a company, people usually organize a small sports game like playing 농구 (nonggu) "basketball" together with co-workers. |
| So if you want to play basketball after work, you can say - 농구 하러 갈래? (Nonggu hareo gallae?) which means "Do you want to go play basketball?". |
| Okay, we just learned top 5 most popular sports. What is your favorite sport? Let us know in the comments. I will see you in the next video. 다음 시간에 뵙겠습니다 (Daeum sigane boepgetsseumnida) 안녕히 계세요 (annyeonghi gyeseyo) |
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