By Honorary Reporter Jubby Kumar from India

Photos = Jubby Kumar

The Korean Culture and Information Service, the parent company of Korea.net, from May 20-26 held a weeklong celebration to welcome this year's class of Honorary Reporters and K-influencers.

One event on May 23 featured three traditional Korean games played by Honorary Reporters: Hallyu bingo, jegichagi (kicking a shuttlecock) and ddakjichigi (game of folded paper tiles). Players were asked to prepare a board with 25 words from a list of 50 Korean vocabulary; scissors, tape, coins, plastic bag and rubber for jegichagi; and two colored sheets of paper for ddakjichigi.

The first game was bingo featuring Korea-related words.

Playing the games was so much fun, and who would've thought that simple everyday items found in every home could be turned into games. In the bingo game, I got three rows.

I made a shuttlecock to play jegichagi with things readily available at my house.

Jegichagi is often played by Korean celebrities on TV shows. One can put coins in a plastic bag or square plastic sheet and wrapped it a rubber band to make a shuttlecock-like item. The goal is to keep kicking the jegi (shuttlecock) in the air, and the player who kicks it the most times  without the jegi falling to the ground wins. 

Ddakjichigi has players try to flip their opponents' folded paper squares over.

Ddakjichigi has been seen in popular shows like the TV entertainment show "Running Man" and the smash Netflix series "Squid Game." Players make two square colored tiles by folding paper called ddakji. The object is to flip the opponent's tile by throwing one's own on the ground. I hope to play this game with my family.

enny0611@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.