Friday 9th October is Hanguel Day, which commemorates the creation of the Korean alphabet. Remember that Korean song Gangnam Style? In Hanguel, Gangnam Style is spelt 강남 스타일. As you can see the Hanguel alphabet is very different to any of the European alphabets. This may come across as daunting to learn, but it’s actually much easier to learn Korean than Chinese or Japanese because there are only 24 letters. It was created by the much-loved King Sejong the Great in the 15th century – before this Koreans used Hanja; based on the Chinese alphabet, this was much more difficult to learn as there are so many characters.
The most popular song of 2012 was of course, 강남 스타일.
Continue reading “Korean Books in the Library of Trinity College Dublin – Happy Hanguel Day!”