November 10, 2024. I think it will be an unforgettable day for L. Children studying in the mountains and ecology are passionate about badminton these days. I was consistently playing badminton in the after-school classroom. These days, badminton competition is suddenly heating up in the world of children. Ecological study children are exercising at the village gymnasium, Seolpi Gwan, under the consideration of Jindong 2-ri residents. When the children came home from school, they started playing badminton.
6th graders Seoyun and Gyeom are competing for the lead. If we win, we win because of our skills, and if we lose, we count on each other, and we work hard to improve our skills. Here, 4th grade student Gyeongjin is challenging himself. Elle, another fourth grader, is also working hard to hone her skills. Soohyun, a second-year student, is always ready to compete with her older brothers and sisters. If I were to rank them in order of ability, it would be Seoyoon > Gyeom > Kyungjin > L > Suhyeon. 6th grader Hyeongi and 2nd grader Jiwoo Yunseo do not show much interest in badminton. Dayoon, a first-year student, has a bit of a gap with her older siblings.
Then the fourth graders got to work. They defeated the 6th grade doubles team, which had not lost a single match. The 4th grade group Gyeongjin-L defeated the 6th grade group Seoyun-Gyeom. I think the children probably started to light up from then on. After losing to Seo Yoon-do, who was the strongest player in the 6th grade, I started practicing even harder. Soohyun, a second year student who had to join in with everything her older brothers and sisters were doing, also started practicing hard.
It was I who the children came to visit. I am familiar with badminton because I used to join a badminton club. At first, I was wondering what kind of badminton I would play with elementary school kids, but since they were so bad at it, it wasn’t much fun. These days, I am proud that children come to me first and ask for teaching. Ask them to watch, ask them what they can’t do, and tell them what to do to win.
Then the kids opened their eyes to the equipment. It might be a problem if you move to an equipment unit. I will take it positively that the children are learning something. I’m using an intermediate level racket, but the kids are asking to play with my racket. After letting him use it a few times, he said it felt lighter and had different elasticity. To be honest, it’s a bit light. The entry-level version usually weighs about 100g, but mine weighs about 78g.
In the end, Gyeom-el begged his mom to buy the equipment. The upset occurred that very day. When I noticed that Gyeom-el was begging their mother to buy them rackets, I emphasized, “The kids don’t need expensive rackets.” It’s not too late to buy something good after you have more basic skills. Gyeom-el’s mother also agreed. I went to buy a racket, but L got greedy. I bought a 78g pack with the pocket money I had saved. And with that racket, he defeated Gyeongjin and Gyeom one after another. Kyungjin was quite shocked. “My pride has collapsed~” he said, unable to raise his face.
However, Gyeongjin did not completely give up. It looked like he was crying, but he didn’t seem to be crying. Afterwards, Kyungjin challenged Gyeom and won. Kyungjin celebrated regaining his self-esteem by running around the gym furiously. My heart completely collapsed. Haha, but Gyeom, who is good-natured, lay on the gym floor for a few minutes before shaking himself off and getting up. On this day, the badminton worldview ranking was L>Kyungjin>Gyeom.
It’s good that through badminton, children realize that if they practice hard and challenge themselves, they can win one day. In doubles, it’s good to learn team play by saying sorry to your partner when you make a mistake and praising them when you do well. I think learning sports at a young age is a valuable experience because you learn the generosity of acknowledging defeat and congratulating the winner. It’s great to come to study abroad in the mountains and play badminton on a court with a net set up and lines drawn in a luxurious gymnasium with high ceilings. Thank you to all Jindong 2-ri officials who allowed us to use the gym~
PS> On this day, L wore purple clothes and came as an ‘eggplant’, Gyeongjin wore orange clothes and came as an ‘evil orange’, Gyeom wore gray clothes and came as a ‘gray mold’, and I wore white on top and black on the bottom and looked like ‘burnt rice’. It was called. Congratulations again to MVP Gazi, and thank you to Vicious Orange and Gray Mold for their hard work. We hope you have fun competing during badminton class after school on Monday.
