“I Don’t Want to Feel Like a Stranger”: Korean Students Who Play Basketball Seriously

The purpose of this study was to investigate the experience of playing basketball among Korean students residing in a small campus town in the U.S. A total of seven Korean students in a midwestern university were interviewed. From the analysis of the interviews, three themes emerged that described the basketball experiences of Korean students: (a) the cost and benefits of playing basketball, (b) the internal factors that facilitated playing basketball, and (c) the external factors that facilitated playing basketball. The findings suggest that the strategies Korean students used to cope with adjustment issues were related to seriously participating in basketball. Participants in this study possessed the qualities of serious leisure (Stebbins, 1992). Their cultural background influenced the formation of leisure participation, and more intimate in-group relationships were established through their leisure activities.