For the past two weeks, I’ve worked to improve my reading, vocabulary, and grammar. I’ve learned numerous historical facts and the mentioned aspects that I want to improve on by reading several articles.
One of the articles that I read talks about “Hangul Day”, a holiday mandated by the government to celebrate the birth of hangul. I learned that this day was called “Ga Gya Nal”, a play on the combination of Korean consonants and vowels. This title was used until 1928, when Koreans decided to call it “Hangul Day”. I did not understand many of the vocabulary words in this article because the words were not intuitive. Rather, they were specific words coined by the government. My difficulties in learning the words also caused me to slow down in reading. I had to break the article down into several paragraphs so that I can understand every detail.
I read another article about “Hoon Min Jung Eum”, a holiday that commemorates the achievements of King Sejong. I was very interested in King Sejong for quite some time, so I was very engaged with the material. I learned that this holiday is also called “Teacher Day” because Koreans consider King Sejong to be the greatest teacher for inventing hangul. I also learned that hangul used to have 28 characters, but 4 were removed for simplicity. I also realized that the reason hangul is so easy to learn was because it was designed for the masses. The illiteracy rate in Joseon (ancient Korea) was almost 0%, so the commoners needed an easy form of reading, writing, and speaking. I’m very proud that Korea had such a leader that was willing to improve the livelihood of his people through the invention of such a scientific form of language.
After reading the articles, I learned to appropriately use vowels in my writing. Hangul has several combinations of consonants and vowels that produce the same sound but mean different things. The word “de” is not only used when an individual is talking about his or her past, but also when he or she is delivering a message from another person. The word “deun” is used when an individual is making a choice between alternatives. The word “dun” is used when an individual is talking about his or her past. Although I already knew when to use these words through constant practice and intuition, I was intrigued by the specific grammar rules. Learning specific grammar rules helps to keep my knowledge of hangul grounded.
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