The Korean Alphabet (Hangul)

Today I’m going to focus on Korean language - more specifically, the alphabet (yes, Korean has an alphabet).  About four years ago, some Korean friends of mine taught me the Korean alphabet (called the Hangul) but I need to brush up my knowledge a bit.  I'll try to sum up what I can remember, and if I make any errors, please let me know in the comments!  Again, I am not an expert, I am just communicating what I remember and what I've learned.

Hangul was created by the court of King Sejong the Great in the 1440s.  You can actually see King Sejong on the 10,000 Korean Won bank note.  The Hangul was created to be very easy to learn, especially when compared to Chinese script, which was difficult to learn and used primarily by the aristocracy.  According to the Hunmin Jeong-eum Haerye, a document from the 1440s explaining the Hangul, "A wise man can acquaint himself with [the letters] before the morning is over; a stupid man can learn them in the space of ten days."  Since we're not stupid, let's go over the Hangul and learn it quickly!

Welcome!

Welcome!  Bienvenue!  Tervetuloa!  환영합니다!   Willkommen!  Aloha!  Karibu!  ласкаво просимо!  Välkommen! ようこそ!  Καλώς Ορίσατε!  Selamat datang!  Bienvenida!  歡迎光臨!  Karibu!  ยินดีต้อนรับ!

Welcome to my blog in which I aim to achieve one goal: to learn new things.  When I was in school - the time in my life when I could take advantage of a free system to challenge myself and push myself to gain knowledge - I wasted that opportunity by taking easy classes and only retaining information long enough to ace the test and then forgetting it all afterwards.  I'd say I didn't really start taking learning seriously until my senior year of college, and even then, I didn't place a high priority on my education.  Later, after college, I really discovered how much I enjoy learning, and how much I value continuing to understand new things constantly.  So now, over a decade after graduating high school, I'm taking it upon myself to further my own education, little by little.  I decided to start this blog as a medium to write about what I am learning; it will be kind of a journal to keep track of the things I study, as well as a mode to keep myself accountable and not fizzle out.

What will I study?  I'm not entirely sure right now.  I may or may not keep a schedule based on subject matter (such as foreign language Fridays, etc.); I haven't decided yet.  My interests include foreign languages and cultures, science, psychology, geography, and history.  Most posts will likely fall under those subjects, but if something else catches my fancy, then I'll write about that!

I'm not entirely sure where this will take me, but as long as I continue learning, I will have succeeded.