여러분, 안녕하세요! [Hello, everyone!]
Today is Hangeul Day, a special day celebrating the Korean alphabet (AKA Hangeul, also romanized as “Hangul”). The day is known as 한글날 (Hangeulnal) in Korean. It is also known as “Hangeul Proclamation Day.” The day of celebration has varied a lot since its inception in 1926, but its date of October 9th has been used since 1945.
Time for some fun facts about the creation of Hangeul! I’ve personally been (slowly) learning Korean since I fell in love with K-Dramas. Now that I think about it, that was almost a decade ago. I completely fell in love with the language, and my curiosity about Korean culture and history quickly followed. So, obviously, I had to write a little something for today! The information below was taken from 90daykorean.com. If you’d like to read a bit more on this topic, I’ll add the link in the comments!
“During the fifteenth century, Koreans used Chinese characters to write. These characters are known as “Hanja” and are still occasionally seen in Korea, particularly on calendars. As Korean is grammatically very different from Chinese, writing Korean using Hanja was almost impossible. As a result, only the elite people in Korea were literate.
In 1443, King Sejong decided that it would be best for Korea if the Korean language had its own alphabet, so he created Hangeul. By 1446, the new alphabet was proclaimed the official writing system of Korea.”
Now, I’m definitely not fluent in Korean quite yet – if you give me text in Hangeul, I can read it aloud/can write decently well also, but cannot translate everything – but I do know some fun bookish terms that I’ve gathered over the years! Here are a few of them:
책 [chaeg – the “g” is kind of swallowed, sounding a bit like a “k” without that final bubble of air in your throat, if that makes sense] translates to “Book”
서점 [seojeom] translates to “Bookstore”
나는 읽고 싶다 [naneun ilg-go sipda] translates to “I want to read.” Let’s break this one down since it’s a sentence! 나는 means “I,” 읽고 means “to read,” and 싶다 means “want.”
And another (special) one because I can’t help myself
나는 페이블을 좋아한다! [naneun peibeul-eul joh-ahanda!] translates to “I love Fable!”
Note that, since there is no harsh “F” sound in Hangeul, we use the “P” instead, pronouncing “Fable” as “pe-i-beu-reul” (I put the “r” there since there is a “ㄹ” before an “ㅇ,” which results in a soft “r” sound. In Hangeul, “ㄹ” makes an “L” sound, but when put next to “ㅇ” like it is for “Fable” it makes that soft “r” sound I mentioned!).
Let’s break this one down and then I’ll give you some of my favorite Korean Lit and K-Drama recs, I promise!
나는, as we saw earlier, means “I,” 페이블을 means “Fable,” and 좋아한다 (in this case) means “love;” however, it can also mean “like” depending on the context. Some of you might be most familiar with “love” as being 사랑해요/사랑해, but this can vary!
Scroll down to find a few of my personal favorite Korean Lit books and K-Drama recommendations, and don’t forget to share your own in the comments!
