2019 Korean History and Cultural Seminar for Educators - Handbook 2019 NKS Handbook-0617 | Page 66

About presenter: Dr. Lucy Park is the Executive Director and one of the founding members of the
Sejong Cultural Society, a non-profit organization, based in Chicago since 2003. The Sejong Cultural
Society is dedicated to advancing awareness and understanding of Korea’s cultural heritage amongst
people in the United States by reaching out to the younger generations through contemporary creative
and fine arts. Main programs of the Sejong Cultural Society are Music Competition, Writing
Competition, Music Composition Competition, and Sijo (Korean poetry) writing workshops for
educators.
An Introduction to Hangeul and Korean Online Course
By Sung Kim
1.
Introduction: Historical background and scientific characteristics
Korean language is one of the most unique scientific inventions in the world. Korean is the language
spoken by about 63 million people in South Korea, North Korea, China, Japan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan
and Russia. The Korean alphabet, Hangeul, was invented in 1444 during the reign of King Sejong
(r.1418-1450), the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty.
Watch a video “Hangeul”—Watch video from IKEN Online Contents
www.ikeneducate.org
2.
Present Hangeul Consonant and Vowels using Korean Online Course Level 1
The Korean alphabet was originally called Hunmin jeongeum, or "The correct sounds for the
instruction of the people“. There are 24 letters (jamo) in the Korean alphabet: 14 consonants and 10
vowels. In addition, some consonants and vowels are combined to form compound consonants and
vowels. The letters are combined together into syllable blocks.
Watch Virtual Lesson in the Korean Online Course Level 1 www.ikeneducate.org
3.
Present how to pronounce each character:
The shapes of the consonants g/k, n, s, m and ng are graphical representations of the speech organs
used to pronounce them. Other consonants were created by adding extra lines to the basic shapes. The
shapes of the vowels are based on three elements: man (a vertical line), earth (a horizontal line) and
heaven (a dot). In modern Hangeul the heavenly dot has mutated into a short line.

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