I Taught My Middle Eastern Friends Badminton — And They Loved It
How a sport I suck at became a bridge between two worlds
I taught my husband how to play badminton right after we got married. Under the moonlight, in the open stretch of road in front of my parent’s Malaysian house, we would sweat it out night after night. Neither of us was trying to win; we were in it for the sheer joy of playing.
Although badminton is one of Malaysia’s most popular sports, I have never loved it. Maybe it was because I have never been good at it.
I’ve never had the skills or finesse required for badminton: quick feet, lightning-fast reflexes, powerful arms, and a razor-sharp judgment of distance.
Whenever I played — very irregularly — with friends, I knew how hard my teammates worked to collect my errant shots. Any kind soul who paired up with me for a doubles match would come close to wounding themselves, lunging desperately from every corner of the court, while I stood helplessly in the center, as useful as a scarecrow.
So you would be forgiven for laughing at the sight of me “teaching” badminton to my Middle Eastern husband. It wasn’t teaching so much as introducing. And we weren’t competing; we were simply connecting.
