Hangeul Day

And we have yet another holiday in Korea :D This time it is Hangeul Day and I just want to let you know shorty what this is (just in case you don't know already).

Hengeul means the Korean alphabet and Hangeul Day is all about celebrating the creation of Hangeul. As you probably know, a long time ago, Koreans used Chinese characters for writing. But Chinese characters are not entirely suitable for Korean language since Chinese and Korean are quite different, especially when it comes to grammar. Chinese characters are also not easy to learn, so in the old days, there were many people in Korea who were unable to read and write. And for that reason King Sejong or Sejong the great from the Joseon dynasty created Hangeul in 1446.

Hangeul is actually a very simple writing system that includes 24 basic letters: 14 basic consonants and 10 basic vowels.

There are also 16 additional symbols (5 consonants and 11 vowels) which are made by combining these basic symbols, so they can also be called complex symbols.

And that's all the hangeul symbols there are - pretty simple, right? ;) After you've learned these symbols you just need to put them together into syllables. Let's look at an example. Let's see how to write Hangeul day in Korean. Hangeul day in Korean is Hangeul-nal. So all you have to do is put the symbols together like this: combine h + a + n into one sylablle 'han', g + eu + l into another syllable 'geul' and n + a + l into the last syllable 'nal'.

And it's as simple as that. A lot of people ask me how to type Korean alphabet using a computer or smartphone. Well, now that you know that Hangeul doesn't have much more symbols than for example English alphabet, you can imagine how they can all fit on a keyboard. Consonants are on the left side and vowels on the right side. Using the shift button you can also get the additional characters. And as you type 'h', 'a' and 'n', your computer or a smartphone will automatically put them together into one syllable 'han'.

Creating Hangeul, King Sejong made writing for Koreans much easier and gave everyone a chance to learn how to read and write, so that reading and writing wasn't limited only to scholars (mostly men) in the highest classes in Korean society. This is why creation of Hangeul is so important and why this is one of Korean's national holidays. Although actually, it hasn't always been a national holiday. In the early 90s some people objected to the number of holidays (non-working) days in Korea and Hangeul day was therefore no longer a national holiday. This changed again in 2013 and now Hangeul is again a work-free day. ^^

Well I hope this was interesting for you and that maybe you learned something new :) As for me, I am happy that my boyfriend gets a day off work. But same as last week, he decided to work today and be free on Saturday instead. ^^

Have a nice Hangeul day, everyone! ;)