Читать книгу It’s capoeira between us. Conversations with capoeiristas. Part 1 - Natalia Korelina - Страница 5

South Korea has become a very special place for me. I came here to patch holes in the budget and lick the mental wounds, so to speak. Well. Both goals were achieved. I left Korea full of energy, ideas and love for capoeira.

Korea is a small country with beautiful nature and a developed economy. Technological and economic growth has occurred so quickly here that people and local traditions have not had time to fully adapt. For example, they monitor the waste recycling and protect nature at the governmental level, but at the same time middle-aged people throw garbage out of car windows. By the way, there are a lot of cars here, and all are quite expensive. At the same time, drivers in the provinces do not stop at a red light, drive without a license, and generally don’t regard traffic rules.

Koreans have a curious way of showing respect to «age». Even if the age difference is one year. This is reflected in the language as well: they use different «you» for addressing a person who is younger than they are and another for a person who is older than they are. This reaches the point of absurdity – I have witnessed more than once when younger friends unquestioningly endured the idiotic antics of older ones. Without going into details, I will say that this does not fit into the modern European mentality, to which I belong.

But this is all happenings in the provinces. Young people flock to Seoul, worship idols (Korea’s ideal pop stars), undergo plastic surgery, speak English, travel, and increasingly protest the archaic traditions of Korean culture. Koreans who have at one point or another lived abroad, stand out a lot. They have much more inner freedom, they look more consciously at everything that is happening in their country. They understand that the Korean mentality puts a lot of labels on people, and this is not always correct.

My conclusions about Korea are limited by my observations, conversations with locals, articles from Quora and videos from YouTube. I am generalizing since you can find any type of mentality even within the same culture. I lived in a province where most of the locals spoke very poor English, so it was difficult to understand what was going on in their minds. Take into account what I’ve said above but do not form any stereotypes.

What about capoeira in South Korea?

While in Russia, I tried to find capoeira in Korea on Instagram using hashtags – I couldn’t find anyone but Zumbi15. I looked in Yandex and found the Zumbi’s webpage again. Well, I thought, he must be the only one then. And capoeira, it seems, existed only in Seoul.

I worked far from Seoul and trained by myself in the park for 2 months. I wrote to Zumbi and informed him that I wanted to meet, chat and practice capoeira with him on my last day (and my only day off) in Korea. I had a flight in the evening, and Zumbi’s class was early in the morning, so I hit the road, slept for an hour and a half on the bus, and with drooping eyes came to his class. After that experience, my body had gone into shock. It had already been heavy after a sleepless night and I had rubbed my feet to calluses. I could barely walk after that class, as Zumbi is a maniac. Honestly, if he could, he would literally train all day long!

After the class, we went to have lunch and met Zumbi’s student. I barely remember conversations we had since my head was really foggy. But, having been on a first visit to Korea, I decided to come to Korea again and become better acquainted with the persons that I interacted with. So, on my second visit to Korea, I went to Seoul 3 times to get to know the Zumbi’s group. I met his student, who replaces him in classes when he is away, – graduada16 Formiginha17.I also met his student from Brazil: in fact, this guy began to practice capoeira in England, when he moved there as a child, and continued with Zumbi, after moving to Seoul. I also met a student from the United States with Brazilian roots who teaches English in Korea.

It turned out that I had met one of Zumbi’s students even before I met him. This happened when I came to Brazil to train with Mestre Papa-Leguas in 2017. This girl used to live and study in Seoul, and now she lives in Brazil. It’s a small world, isn’t it?

Are there any other capoeira groups in Korea?

Yes, Some of Zumbi’s former students had split off and continued to work directly with Mestre Chicote. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to meet with any of them during my time in Korea.

I managed to find 3 CDO18 groups in Korea. I have also heard of Capoeira Angola19 and Abada. All groups, judging by the photos, are quite small and do not hold large events.

In my personal experience, most Koreans do not know how to relax and have fun in a healthy way. Constantly competing for jobs, they worry too much about their social image, and Koreans simply don’t have the time and energy to have a real hobby, let alone devote themselves to capoeira and start teaching with a yellow belt.