Happy Hangeul Day!
The beauty and heartbreak of learning and losing your language
Happy Hangeul Day/한글날! Almost all South Koreans have this federal holiday off on October 9. (North Koreans celebrate Hangeul Day as well, except they do so on January 15.)
I know that some of you who regularly read my newsletter have taught yourself how to read Hangeul. And from the emails and DMs you’ve sent me, I understand that you may not know the meaning of most of the words you are reading. However, you can pronounce Korean words and names better by reading them in Hangeul than the McCune–Reischauer romanization of Korean words.
King Sejong invented Hanguel in the 15th century. His goal wasn’t to inflict another language on his subjects. Rather, he created a 28-letter alphabet that was simple enough for even the uneducated lower class citizens to learn. (Four letters were eventually dropped to its current 24-letter count.) Until then, most books and documents were written in classical Chinese, which was complicated and accessible primarily to only the privileged upper class.
King Sejong wanted everyone to be able to read, write and communicate in a common language. Knowledge would help equalize his people.
Of course, some of the nobles were angry about this. They were afraid the peasants would be able to figure out that they were being taken advantage of.
It had always been my goal to raise my son to be bilingual. It was easy enough when he was a baby. It was natural for him to refer to me as 엄마, rather than mommy. In fact, he liked the word so much that's what he called his father for a long time, too.