스포츠 응원 놀이의 그늘 [똑똑! 한국사회]

For the first time, a high school teacher has taken on a new role, and they quickly discovered many unfamiliar aspects to their job. The strangest of all was the prevalence of sports culture in children's lives and play. While South Korea is generally known for its love of sports, children have varying preferences when it comes to sports.

Some adore foreign soccer players, local soccer players, and specific football teams, while others have their favorite baseball teams and cheer for them. The act of chanting team chants, learning slogans, and mimicking players' individual cheers is a form of play for children. However, this initially amusing scene quickly turned into a matter of concern.

Just a few days after the new school year began, a student asked their teacher, "What team are you supporting, teacher?" The teacher responded that they didn't have a favorite team. The student then inquired, "Have you never liked baseball or cheered for it?" The teacher recalled fondly their own experience of watching the 1992 Korean Series game with their father, as well as their knowledge of the "Babe the Hurricane" song and the "Ara!" chant.

The child then proudly declared, "Teacher, I was once a Lottie fan!" The laughter of the other children was unsettling, and it was not particularly pleasant. When asked why they were laughing, the child explained that in their class, those who supported Lottie were mocked and ridiculed. The teacher tried to brush off the laughter as foolishness, given their 30-year history of following baseball, but the issue was that not only the Lottie fans tolerated the mockery and ridicule.

Most of their classmates supported their local home team, while all other teams were subjected to ridicule and mockery. Even during break time, chanting team songs and slogans, the children were met with jeers and laughter. Initially, the teacher thought it was acceptable for children to chant for their favorite teams during their free time.

However, they soon realized that excluding certain children and their preferred teams caused emotional distress. Even though they themselves were not directly involved in playing baseball, the children felt a sense of superiority when their team won and experienced sadness when their team lost. This imbalance created a simplistic dichotomy between the teacher's "us" and the other teams' "them," an overly simplistic worldview that reduced complex human beings to mere labels.

This narrow-minded perspective fails to recognize that opposing teams are also people with their own stories and perspectives. The teacher believes that teaching children to empathize with opposing teams and understand their narratives is an essential part of allowing them to enjoy sports.