Global play: children's traditional games

Worldwide, children love to play games. Browse through the pages of Children's Games from Around the World in TOPICS Online Magazine to discover how children from many countries, including Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Korea, Japan, China, Germany, Indonesia, and Nepal, play different versions of the same traditional games such as jump rope, marbles, tag, hopscotch, and jacks.

Read descriptions of games from at least three different countries. Did you play a version of any of these games as a child?

Post a comment. Tell us about a game you enjoyed playing when you were a child in your country.

Comments

[Pgidiuli]

In my childhood I used to play with marbles,cars,etc,but one of my favourite games was to put many little plastic figures on the floor and create a little stadium, and so I organized a match between plastic figures.

I can say that I passed a lot of time playing like this.Very probably you don't know this game because I invented it by myself, but it's a very amusing game. What do you think?

[Lee Kyoung Bok]

Among our traditional games, there is one called 'Ja-Chi-Gi.' When I was a child, I often played this game. To play this game, you have to prepare two branches. One branch is about 60cm long, and the other one is about 20cm long. We put the big branch on a wide stone and hit part of it with a small branch. After that, we hit the big one which is in the air a baseball. In this game, there are 4 bases and we just hit and run like in baseball. There is no violence and no blood.

Unfortunately, nowadays, children prefer to play video games, so we have a problem. Our children are exposed to the violence of video games. Parents and society have to find a solution for this problem.

[Jiro]

In my childhood, I used to enjoy spinning some Japanese tops called ‘koma’ in Japanese. Japanese tops were usually made of wood. They were shaped like a cone and had steel lead on the top of the cone. It is a Japanese traditional game for children. I played many other traditional games. However, I have never heard stories about such traditional games in Japan. I’m afraid that we will see that only in museums in the near future.

[Ki]

Dabanggu is one of my favorites. There are two taggers, a big pole which is called a jib (It means house in Korean.), and other people. When the tagger catches people, they have to stand by the jib and touch the jib. However, the people who are not caught by the tagger can release them if they touch them. When the tagger catches all the people, the game is over. When I was young, I played it without noticing the time. I hope I can play again some day in the future.

[Adel]

When I was child, I used to play "hiding shoes" That made me laugh. Most children enjoied playing the game. The game was looking for hiden shoeses. I think the game was really funny.

[Ilsoo Yoon]

I used to play a game, called "Tang Ta Muk Gi" so many times. To play this game, first, you should draw some lines and put numbers in lines. Then, you throw a small stone and go to the end of the line from the beginning of the line without stepping on the area where you threw your stone. There are some steps, so if you pass all the steps, then you can throw your stone again without looking. Finally, if the stone that you threw goes into a empty space, then you can make the ground yours.

[Justin]

When I was child, I loved to play these kinds of traditional games. However, nowadays, most children no longer play these outdoor games. Instead, they like to play computer and video games indoors. They say outdoor games are not fun. They prefer to see bloody violence on video games. This is a big issue in our society. Parents and social communities have to find a solution for this problem.

[Great Andy]

When I was young, I played the Korean game, Ice and Release. It is kind of tag and chase game. Suppose one man is a policeman, and the others are criminals. The police man chases the others. However, if the criminals say "ice," then the policeman can't arrest them. Also, a criminal who said "ice" can't move. He is like ice. However, another criminal can release the ice man by touching him. The policeman has to prevent the other criminals from releaseing the ice criminal. While they try to release the ice criminal, the policeman can touch other people who didn't say ice. If the policeman succeeds in touching one of them, they change roles.

[Yumi]

In Korea, there are many traditional games. The traditional game I like most is 'Jumping with a long rubber band .' Most Korean young girls like this game. When we play this game, we jump and sing.

[Seon Mi]

When I was a young girl in Korea, I used to play with my friends. We played jump rope. Two people held a rope between their legs and they stood at a short distance. Other people jumped over the rope. Everybody sang a song while they were jumping rope. Sometimes, over two people held the rope. Jump rope was a fun traditional game in my country and most women in Korea played it during their childhood.

[Eugene Rhim]

Every country is very similar, even though they didn't connect each other, like children's traditional games, music, or fairy tales. It means all people in the world look different, but we are very similar, I think.