Far From Home, Koreans Cheer for Home Team

Koreans love a spectacle and one another’s company, so they came by the thousands to Koreatown to watch Friday’s televised World Cup match between South Korea and Switzerland on giant projector screens.

“This is a wonderful day -- I am so proud of our team,” said Helen Kim, a Koreatown denizen, wearing a red “Go, Korea” T-shirt and matching hat, and squatting on the sidewalk next to VIP Plaza at Olympic Boulevard and Irolo Street.

Next to her sat squirming preschoolers from 1,2,3 Pre-School in Koreatown, who were very much part of the cheering team.

Their faces painted with round shapes of the yin and yang emblem found on the South Korean national flag, the little ones beat their drums and gongs on cue from the leader of the cheerleading group.

Their teacher, Bok Kyung Kim, had brought her 25 3- and 4-year-olds to give them an early education in Korean culture.

Three blocks of Olympic Boulevard between Normandie and Harvard had been cordoned off to accommodate the fans. Some resourceful ones had spread out mats and sat under parasols, enjoying instant noodles as they watched the game.

On Olympic, about two dozen members of the cheerleading team worked on a stage below a projector screen.

“Korea, Korea,” they chanted in English, as the throng joined them. At other times, they yelled “Daehan minguk, Daehan minguk” -- a formal name for South Korea.

Their chants were followed by the beating on the drums and gongs and dancing under a hot midday sun.

Interspersed between the drumbeats, cheerleaders sang “Arirang,” the best-known Korean folk song, and “Aeguk-ka,” the South Korean national anthem.

They even managed to repeatedly play the melody of the hymn “God of Grace and God of Glory.” They did not recite lyrics, but a phrase from that hymn seemed befitting the occasion: “Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the facing of this hour, for the facing of this hour.”

Longshoreman Carlos Cordon, who had come from San Pedro on his day off with his 7-year daughter, Madelin, to watch the match, said he had been rooting for the South Koreans because they play with “their heart.”

“You love seeing them -- and the people in the stands, too,” said Cordon, adding that Koreans are a big part of L.A.

“My daughter’s first-grade teacher is a Korean. My chiropractor is a Korean. He doesn’t speak much English and I don’t speak any Korean, but somehow we communicate.

“We have a lot of influence on each other daily,” he said. “What other place in the world can you have that?”

Under a tree, half a block from the giant projector screen, Grace Byon sold red T-shirts at $5 apiece.

Business was not as good as she had hoped, the street vendor said. But that didn’t bother her. And though the Koreans were crestfallen when Switzerland beat South Korea 2-0, Byon saw a greater meaning to the day.

“To me, the important thing is all of us Koreans being together like this. This is not just about soccer,” she said. “This is so special.”