Korean Job Discussion Forums

[captain kirk]

I've made all kinds and types of boomerangs the last year, but making a b for kids is the current project. I'm leaving in five weeks and want to give every kid in the haggie a b. Two hundred kids.
I can make beginner, intermediate and a few advanced ones for adults. Adults can read instructions, because there's a method to throwing. 30 degrees to the right of the wind, thrown vertically like a wheel rolling in the sky. Never sidearm it like a frisbee; straight up and straight down, snap!
Korean kids at the haggie are busy and I'm busy. If they aren't in class, like I'm always in class, they're bussing to another haggie. I've given them b's but they've been beginner models for adults. They just haven't the strength, leverage in a longer, adult arm, to power the throw so it spins like a wheel to end wheeling horizontally like a helicopter. Which is how a b flies. It gradually lays down horizontally. You release it vertically. Most people figure they're thrown like a frisbee. It lays down into the 'end hover' by itself.
Haggie kids being busy, and I'm busy at the haggie, I've never thrown with kids. If I had, I'd have known a lot sooner what they need in a b design.
Well today, by the river, I'd been throwing for a couple hours when around dusk three kids came along. Walked right up. Short, boys, must have been eight? They weren't the usual haggie kids, either. They didn't speak any English and had that stunned look whenever a foreigner, me, said anything. Like they couldn't believe it somehow and their brains were needing to take it in, a foreigner speaking. Glazed look.
Since they didn't speak any English and I speak only 'pivotal' words that I've remembered from consulting the dictionary all the time in class, you can imagine how that increased their 'glazed, uncomprehending' thing going on regards me, the alien. Also, they're eight, out in a field running around, huh huh huh hyper!
Great conditions like yesterday. Light touch of a wind, clear sky, sunny. The weather's perfectly cool these days, high wisps of white clouds like the white wisp of hair my Grandad grew long and draped over the top of his bald head. Changing leaves and pale blue sky. Choice.
So I'd thrown and caught for a couple of hours, ace day, when the kids came along. Tanned, dirty, 'wow, boo-mer-anghs!'. Nearby were some foreigners, ten, five to a team, playing Ultimate, that frisbee football game. I'm sure they got a laugh at me 'tutoring' these kids who each had what I'd thought was 'my kids rang design'. Because one was broken within ten minutes. Why? A kid sidearmed it, straight up, straight down, snap! Of course it's gonna snap. It's like I was there demonstrating how to throw in a loud voice like the wide open spaces was a haggie room I had to control. And because it had no walls my voice had to be so loud! (vacation in five weeks, a big TGIF). 'You broke it, dumbass, I said don't sidearm it!'. As soon as they have the rang and I'm not there anymore 'class is out' and they can 'experiment, forget the throwing method/rules and pitch it any way just because they're kids, anything goes, and 'play has no walls/limits'. Anyway, it got me to thinking how some foreigners volunteer to teach at orphanages. These kids aren't orphans, but I pity their mothers (little joke). And I'm pretty sure, like I said, they've never been to a hagwon. And like all Korean kids any boomerang they've had or seen has been one of those 500 won plastic ones that simply are not made to return. So they don't. So nobody, from kid to adult, in Korea thinks b's work.
Three kids, each got a rang. One broken. So I get them to do the rock, paper, scissors to decide who gets a plastic kids rang, made in Korea by the way, I'd found from a Korean man who has a company, Sky Boomerang, in Asan. It works, and his adult plastic model is sweet, as well. A little white later another wood one I made is snapped. I saw it break. Another rebel throw defying the rules/method. This kid was 'the sensitive type'. He was upset his gift boomerang had broken. He sat and looked forlorn while his friends, still possessing unbroken b's, were still hurling. So I gave him the wrapper with the Asan maker's phone number on it so 'his mother could order one'. For two thousand won or whatever it is. That gave him a mission, and he looked plucked up.
Word had got around thru the kid grapevine and a 'pack' of giveaway boomerang intent kids, three of them, strode deliberately over, demanding boomerangs. Along with a father who wanted one for his son. They were kicking the soccer ball, Dad playing goalie. He seemed to know my name, which is weird, because this field by the river is a couple of miles from my neighbourhood. So I had to get stern with the lot of them. But the lesson of the day was a b for kids must be, like a puppy or kitten, immune to being tilted, bounced, thrown, every and any which way. There are no rules to throwing b's for kids. Anarchy rules.
When I'm throwing for a couple of hours usually a couple of people approach, shyly. They've been watching for a while, like 'would-ya-look-at-that!'. Arms behind their backs, sometimes, in that Korean 'inspecting' pose. Slowly they approach. The tension becomes unbearable. They won't go away. Then I gesture for them to come over holding a b for them to throw, offering it like a chicken leg. Um, yummy, you try. Yesterday it was a guy from the soccer team who wanted to throw because it was a challenge. Like, 'I did it'. It's busy there during the weekends, sort of. During weekdays I've thrown with a retired man who sidled shyly up. The first time he threw he just about hit me in the face. Like he had some foreigner issues. I noticed him chuckling a bit. But then he got it down. Under the bridge, not far away, the oldsters play croquet in the clay in the shade. Yes, that's right, under the bridge.

[tommynomad]

Well, I've received 3 'rangs from you (thrown 1) and I can understand the kids' enthusiasm. As a long-time ulti player (NB: never call it Frisbee-anything), I love flinging just about anything (see my post in the spitting thread). And my students wantedto jump right in and throw, too.

Thanks for the 'rangs, Capt'n!

[captain kirk]

Anyone wanting some rangs go to the buy and sell section of Dave's. They're 5,000 each.

[captain kirk]

I 'learned something' about kids out throwing with them today. From how they throw. That is any which way. Not listening to the instructions very well, and as soon as I'm out of the picture just tossing them any way they feel like it. That is experimenting. That kind of free rein in their approach to things is valuable. I got to thinking that people retain just enough of that in their twenties, in their prime so to speak, that creative things happen. New inventions, techniques, ways of doing things. New architecture, whatever.
They also adapted and over-rided my instructions, which turned out to be just the thing to do, since they hadn't the leverage/long arms (or power) to pitch 'by the book' the 'kids rangs design' I'd given each. Instead, they realized the limitations of their bodies and strength, retaining the purpose (to make the b return) and tossed lazily, half like a frisbee and half like a b is thrown (vertically). The result was they got returns. The b sailed end over end out, quickly going into a helicopter mode at the extreme limit (only about 14 meters the way they threw). Then came back straight. The throw shape like a yoyo (throwing that rang 'by the book' gives a circular flight, much further out and around).
Gotta give those litte tikes credit for figuring that out and adapting a throw that works for them, given the rang.

[ajuma]

Geez! Korean kids are dangerous enough...and now you're giving them ANOTHER weapon!!!

[captain kirk]

Haha, there's a boomerang association in the U.S. called 'Mothers Against Boomerangs'. It's a joke. They're really all boomerang-iacs.