Today in SM 3950 Dr. Cho spoke to our class about globalization and glocalization and how these and sports have impacted his life. It was amazing to hear how he grew up and the influences and situations he has been through and learned from.
First the thing that stood out to me was how similar his childhood was to that of any normal child in America. He grew up doing normal things a kid would do and all of his free time was spent playing sports with his friends every chance they could. He grew up with a "hero" which in his case was Jerry Rice, just like every sports kid had their favorite sports icon. He also touched on his college life as well, which he seemed to hint involved a lot of partying and drinking which is also very similar to the life of college kids in the states. (especially BGSU!)
Second, I was interested in how he got turned on to sports...he then told us about the military channel that televised the sporting events from the U.S. to the troops overseas and it was also televised to civilians as well. He included in that there were no commercials (wouldn't that be the perfect channel?!)
Dr. Cho also spoke of the draft and how he was involved in the military after being drafted. That was shocking to me as we have never had to deal with a draft in our lifetime. I'm not sure how that would feel if young kids were forced into the military against their will. I would have no problem fighting for my country and would do it in a heartbeat if it came down to it but I can not imagine the feeling after opening up a letter and seeing you have to report somewhere. But seeing he did get to spend 8 hours in a car with the cowboys cheerleaders, I would say it's a fair trade.
Lastly, it was neat to see towards the end how supportive Korea is of their sports. Seeing the crowd of 3 million fans to watch a world cup game on a big screen just amazed me. It was an unreal sight on video, couldn't imagine what it would be like in person. It just goes to show that sports are a huge market all over the world no matter where you go.
The one thing that stood out to me when Dr. Cho spoke and that you mentioned was Koreas support during the world cup. The fact that the mass amount of people that filled the streets to watch the semi final game vs Spain was amazing. It just goes to show you what the world is capable of. We lose track of that in our society, we think that support like that is only in NY, Chicago, or LA at times and we find ourselves thinking the US is its own little world. I think back to the 2010 World Cup when ANY team was playing and how they would cut to a camera in whatever team was playings country and it would should hundreds of thousands of fans supporting their country while watching a big screen. Sports mean a lot to the world and that's something that we don't realize everyday.
ReplyDelete-Bobby
I agree completely, a lot of Americans believe that we are the sports capital of the world and there isn't really anyone else out there like us. Big flash to everyone, we don't see things in the States like the video that Dr. Cho showed us. How many times have we seen millions of people stand behind a world cup team like that. I'm not giving Americans the short straw but in a way I am saying that we are too small minded and need to be more open to other countries in sport and learn from them. But we have really come together for our sports teams in many situations. My personal favorite would be when our country gathered around a bunch of college kids and cheered them on to win against the soviets in the 1980 Olympics. The miracle on ice should be a representation of how we should always support our U.S sports teams.
ReplyDeleteYou made some great observations about Dr. Cho's presentation so I am glad you got a lot from it. Since you mentioned the mandatory draft, I was in college the last time they had the draft and can remember the anxiety it produced in many of my classmates, including my brother. They did the draft based upon birthdays and my brother turned out to have a good birthday.
ReplyDeleteAs far as national support behind a U.S. team, I cannot think of it happening recently--with the possible exception of the Miracle on Ice. Even then, the support for that team really came after the fact. I don't even think the game was broadcast live. But it was an awesome event in retrospect!
The movie miracle is my favorite sports movie. And I agree that it was probably the last time there was a huge support for a countries team. My only problem with that support is that I believe the support was so big because of the soviets and the problems in the world with enemy countries. Also because the U.S was struggling so much economy wise, it was just something that Americans could rally around to bring a positive up in that time.
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