Hungul Day Speech

Kim Jin Woog

Professor Shankar Basu, Dean of SLL&CS, Korean Ambassador Paek Young Sun, Professor Manjushree Chauhan; Chairperson of CJKNEAS, Distinguished Professors and dear students, 

I am honored to extend greetings to you on behalf of Korean Association in India. The President of the association; Kim Myeong Bo is in Korea now, so I was asked by the association to speak something to you on this auspicious occasion.  

Since I have come here in JNU, I have met many students of Korean studies and Korean Language; they are very keen in understanding Korea. Whenever I asked them why they learn Korean, they normally answer that they want lucrative job in Korean companies. 

Well that¡¯s good. Korea is much developed in Economic terms. Today, More than 300 Korean companies are hiring more than 50,000 Korean experts in their offices and factories both in white as well as blue collar jobs. So it becomes a good sign for beginners who want to learn Korean especially in so called recession. And some Indian think Republic of Korea has well known to Indian just because of economic development. They may also think Korean is boasting of only their economy. 

I am very sorry, for this misperception of Indian mindset about Korea and Korean people. Korea also has long history like India and has many cultural legacies. One of them is as you know, Hangul ; Korean letters. Why Hangul is precious legacy to Korean people and at the same time to our entire human beings.  

I could say there are three reasons for that. First one is as you know the scientific features of the Korean alphabets. Korean alphabets are phonetic letters different from Chinese and Japanese script. The great King Sejong and his scholars has created the alphabets according to how vocalizing organ such as tongue, teeth, throat and lips are formed when pronunciation.

The great King Sejong sent his scholars to every country and surveyed the pronunciation throughout the world. They composed sounds in Korean alphabets from different phonetics around the world; that is why Korean Alphabet can express every sound in every language even if a foolish scholar has lost some precious alphabets such as ¹ÝÄ¡À½ ¡®½º¡¯, ¼ø°æÀ½ ¡®ºê¡¯ ¾ÆÀ½ ¡®¤·¡¯. If we use all those alphabets, we can write almost every sound in any language.

For example English alphabet has g and k in velar sounds. Hindi has °¡,±î,Ä« sound but Hungul has ±× ²ô Å© À¸ À¸±× sound. I have heard Tamil script has nearly all these sound and I became surprised to know that both Tamil and Hungal share a number of same words.  

Secondly, the great King Sejong has created Hangul because of his strong affection towards his own people. Because People are facing difficulties in using Chinese letters mismatched to Korean language especially for unlearned women and ordinary people at that time. So he has tried to help his people to express what they are thinking precisely.

Who else in the history where the King had created alphabets to solve the problems of their own peoples¡¯ difficulties while expressing their thought? The great King Sejong has taken care of the people above food, clothing, housing and other facilities. So, how can one evaluate Korean people just in economic terms?

Lastly, Hungul has cosmic theories in the alphabets. Vowels are consisted of Heaven, Earth and Human beings. Dot is heaven; horizontal line is earth and vertical line is human beings. Consonants are Yang, Vowels are Ying. Yang and Ying are harmonizing and creating beautiful sounds. That¡¯s why when man and women are making love; they are making wonderful sound at the same time.  

Well, with these primary informations about origin and general use of Hangul, I am concluding my speech.

Congratulations on Hangul Day 2009 again and I am admiring to the leading professors Dr. Kim Jongmin, Dr. Vyjaynti, Dr. Neerja Sammajdar and Mr. Kaushal Kumar. Korean Association in India will support this Hangul Day Programme continuously. Thank you.