Happy Hangul Day! Hangul is the Korean alphabet, and it’s definitely one worth celebrating. Like Drops, Hangul was created to make learning more accessible. Now it’s honored every October 9th.
Before Hangul was invented, Classical Chinese was the writing system in use, but it differed so much from spoken Korean that it was inaccessible for lower classes that couldn’t afford education. Then King Sejong introduced Hangul, a writing system that matched Korean phonetic language. Despite there being some push back from elitist classes, Hangul became widely used within a couple years, even earning its own amendment.
Let’s celebrate the achievements of Hangul by learning some key Korean words and phrases!
Let’s start with the basics! You can review these words and much more in the Drops Korean Course.
Hello is 안녕하세요, or “annyeonghaseyo”
Goodbye is 안녕히 가세요, or “annyeonghigaseyo”
Thank you is 감사합니다 or “gamsahamnida”
K-pop is 케이팝 or “keipab”
I love you is 사랑해요 or “saranghaeyo”
The creation of Hangul tells a beautiful story about promoting literacy across socioeconomic classes, making learning a language easier. It’s definitely inspired us to keep working on our Korean. What about you? Will you join the 5,177,578 other users learning Korean with Drops?
Elissa Gonzalez is a Venezuelan American UX Writer living in Germany.
