Unit 1 : Hangul

     Koreans use their own unique alphabet called Hangul (originally called Hun Min Jeong Um), and it was created under King Sejong and completed in 1443 during the Chosun Dynasty. Before that, Korean had been using Chineese characters to describe the Korean language. Then King Sejong realized that the system is not suitable for Korean language because Chineese has too many character to choose for the sound of Korean. Furthermore, only upper social classes' children could be sent to learnt Chineese character, which is unfair to the majority people who are remain illiteracy. He wanted to create a veru easy and understandable new characters so that everybody can express their thoughts in written form without any difficulties. With these grounds, he has created own unique Korean alphabets, Hangul which consists of 40 letters, 21 to represent vowels and diphthongs and 19 to represent the consonant.

The picture of King Sejong

King Sejong Statue at Gwanghwamun Square, Seoul, Korea.