Taekwondo Losing Popularity in Korea

In a martial arts gym located in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province on 6:30 p.m. July 5, children wearing robes were sitting and speaking “Ni hao ma” (hello) and “jai jian” (see you again).

The Taekwondo gym provides Chinese and Chinese writing classes instead of Taekwondo Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon. The martial arts center hired a Chinese teacher to teach Chinese to children.

Kids enjoy learning Chinese, saying, “We like learning Chinese more than learning Taekwondo.”

Kim Sung-chul, a 36 year-old gym owner, who began to run the gym ten years ago said, “Enrollments were falling. So I began to provide Chinese class to increase enrollments last year.”

“Taeglish Academy,” a Taekwondo gym in Incheon city, had a Canadian instructor teach both Taekwondo and English until recently. That drew many people to the gym.

Its name, Taeglish, is a combination of Taekwondo and English. The Canadian instructor left Korea because his visa expired. Now the gym is searching for a new foreign instructor.

Competition among Taekwondo gyms is getting fiercer because low fertility rate means fewer children are learning Taekwondo and more and more kids are fascinated by other leisure sports such as inline skating.

Kids carrying a Taekwondo robe over the shoulder were commonly witnessed in the 1980s and 1990s, but not now. Taekwondo gym owners and instructors say that it seems that Taekwondo has lost its status as a national sport.

Some Taekwondo gyms are trying to attract adults instead of kids.

Another Taekwondo gym, “Goryeo Taekwondo” in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, runs yoga classes and weight-control programs. Those were services for mothers of children learning Taekwondo.

A Taekwondo instructor said, “You cannot make ends meet just targeting children. You have to develop programs suitable for adults.”

Increasing number of Taekwondo gyms are providing swimming, oratory, and breathing classes.

The planning manager of the Korea Taekwondo Association, Yu Ho-yoon, said, “The number of people learning Taekwondo increased since 1961, the year of the foundation of the association, but began to decrease since the early 2000s. The association for its part is making efforts to find ways to reverse the trend.”