What is your favorite sport to play or watch? Have you been watching the 21^stFIFA World Cup that is happening in Russia now? If you have Korean friends or co-workers, you would quickly learn many Korean people enjoy watching sports and cheer on their teams together. This post is about how to ask someone’s preference of sports, a list of sports, and some soccer related words and phrases in Korean.

These are questions either you can ask someone or you will be asked by someone regarding your preference of sports:

The following sentences have the same meaning,  “What kind of sports do you like?” in Korean:

1.   [uh-tteon woon-dong-eul jo-ah-ha-se-yo]   어떤  운동을  좋아하세요?  – polite

2.  [uh-tteon woon-dong-eul jo-ah-hae]   어떤  운동을  좋아해?  – informal

*Both “어떤 ”  and “무슨 ”  are frequently used by Koreans, and they are interchangeable.

3.  [moo-seun woon-dong-eul jo-ah-ha-se-yo]   무슨  운동을  좋아하세요? – polite

4.  [moo-seun woon-dong-eul jo-ah-hae]   무슨  운동을  좋아해?  – informal

Korean people enjoy many different types of sports. The following is a list of sports that many Koreans enjoy playing or cheering for their teams and players:

5.  [chook-goo]  축구  :  soccer

6.  [ya-goo]  야구  :  baseball

7.  [nong-goo]  농구   :  basketball

8.  [taek-kwon-do]  태권도  :  Taekwondo

9.  [kweon-too]  권투  :  boxing

10.  [ball-ling]  볼링  :  bowling

11.  [gol-peu]   골프  :  golf

12.  [te-ni-seu]   테니스  :  tennis

13.  [seu-ki]   스키  :   skiing

14.  [soo-young]  수영  :   swimming

15.  [bae-deu-min-teon]  배드민턴 :  badminton

 

“축구(soccer)” is one of the most popular sports in Korea. During the current World cup matches, many Korean soccer fans will cheer for their national soccer team at homes or on the streets of Seoul. You will often hear them chanting“[dae~~han-min-gook] 대~~한민국 ” which means “the republic of Korea” followed by five claps.If you have an opportunity to watch a soccer game in Korean or talk about a game with your Korean friends or coworkers, the following list of words and phrases will be useful to you:

16.  [seon-soo]  선수  :  player

17.  [chook-goo kyeong-gi]   축구 경기  :  soccer game

18.  [gol-ki-puh]   골키퍼  :  goalkeeper

19.  [sim-pan]   심판  :  referee

20.  [gam-dok]   감독  : coach/manager

21.  [gong-eul cha-da]   공을  차다  :  kick the ball

22. [gong-eul pae-seu-ha-da]  공을  패스하다  : pass the ball

23.  [he-ding]   헤딩   :  heading

24.  [gong-eul nut-ta]   골을넣다  :  make a goal

25.  [deuk-jeom]   득점  :  score

26.  [i-gi-da]   이기다  :  to win

27.  [ji-da]   지다  :  to lose

Sports can be a good topic for small talk in Korean. I hope you will enjoy watching World cup games and be able to use some of the words and phrases to talk about the Korean national team or whichever country that you are cheering for the game.

I hope you will find this post useful when you are engaged in a conversation with Korean speakers.

감사합니다. (Thank you!)