Everyone has played “rock, paper, scissors” at some point in their lives. You might even still do it to make important decisions between friends and loved ones, like who is going to pay for dinner or who gets to pick the movie you’re going out to watch.
If you’re planning on visiting or living in Korea, you might find this game useful at some point, so it couldn’t hurt to learn it now!
YouTuber Korean Unnie taught viewers the steps to playing in Korea, and while it sounds straightforward, it’s definitely a little more confusing than you might initially believe!
To start with, the order of the items is different! Rather than “rock, paper, scissors“, it is instead “scissors, rock, paper“. Say, what?! But yes, it’s true!
Of course, the words are said in Korean also, so rather than “scissors, rock, paper” you would say: “gawi, bawi, bo“.
But wait, there’s more! Koreans don’t just play with one hand, no, no, they play with TWO hands!
As for the whole song? It’s “gawi, bawi, bo ehseo hana bbagi il“, which our Korean Unnie explains means “scissors, rock, paper one minus one“.
Here, she brings her brother in to play against her so she can show viewers an example of how to play:
She demonstrates once again, this time using the two-handed method to provide a clearer understanding of what you’re supposed to do.
Just in case you missed that, after the two of them showed both of their hands, she quickly decided which one was the best choice and held it up, leading to her brother’s defeat!
Here’s another example, with Korean Unnie losing to her brother:
Starting from about 6:50, you can play against Korean Unnie and see if you learned anything from this article!
