“Badung? What the hell is that?”
The title is a quote from Hye Yeon’s blog describing her interaction with the US Customs officers on her entry in the US for the Go Congress this year.
She was asked what’s her job, and when she told the officer about “Baduk”, that was the officer’s first reaction.
Even if one cannot blame the US officer - the name people learn for this game in the US and Europe (if any) is “the game of Go” because it was Japan who first spread the game internationally - I still find this very hilarious as I try to imagine the scene.
Speaking of custom officers, I remember an interaction with a Romanian one back in the early 90’s: a group of us was going by train to a Go competition abroad, and as we crossed the border we wanted to explain what it is we’re playing before being asked, and the officer even felt a bit offended: “Common, we also know a thing or two, of course we heard of Go!”. That was a pleasant surprise!
Back to Hye Yeon’s blog: I love the candid way she describes her first US Congress experience. The first entry about the congress is here, then you can follow the next entries in the calendar on the left hand side in the blog.