A Visit to National Hangeul Museum

I love museums! Because they can tell you a lot of interesting historical facts. Also, museums can help people to understand the culture of that country better. And sometimes, nope almost always, you can learn something new, even if you already have been to that museum before.

Hangeul means the Korean alphabet, so the museum is dedicated to the Korean alphabet. 

About National Hangeul Museum

The museum has opened its doors on October 9th 2014. It is an Hangeul Day in Korea. The museum is located in Seoul close to the National Museum of Korea. And there is a park zone around the museum.

There are 5 floors in the museum and 3 of them are museum exhibition halls. You know almost every museum in Korea has a kids zone. It can be a special exhibition hall or a playing learning zone. And I think it is really cool! So kids don't get bored, they can play and they can learn at the same time.

Hall with Korean folk songs for children

We started our excursion from the top floor, and there was an exhibition of Korean school classrooms and Korean songs for children. 

Hangeul

The Korean alphabet, which is called Hangeul, was invented by King Sejong in 1443 CE. There are 24 letters in the Korean alphabet. However, initially, there were 28 Hangeul characters. The 4 letters disappeared because the sound of the words expressed by these letters disappeared or became less used. 

Eight basic letters were based on simple forms of dot, line and circle, and others were the expansion of the 8 basic letters. It was said that

'a wise person can comprehend in one morning and even an unwise can learn in 10 days.'

Are you wise or unwise? :)

One of the main reasons why King Sejong decided to create Hangeul is education. He hoped that many people could acquire academics and knowledge easily through Hangeul. So, he started publishing books in Hangeul on Buddhism's teachings and Confucianism. Then there were books about diseases, hunger, wars, rules and regulations, etc. So, hangeul became an important tool for sharing knowledge.

Also, King Sejong wanted everyone could communicate freely regardless of their status or gender. And it became the main communication tool to share thoughts and emotions.

There is a book called Hunminjeongeum, that tells about when, how, why, and by whom Hangeul was invented. And that document was designated as a Korean national treasure and UNESCO heritage. There are 33 pages in the book.

I remember I had a similar typewriter at home but of course, it was without Korean letters. It was in English letters. 

In the end, I want to share with you a short video that I saw in the museum. I changes the background music because it was too noisy there. The video shows what our world would be like without hangeul. I think it can be related to any language/alphabet in the world.

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