In an effort to remedy the situation and help the common people, who found it difficult to communicate in Chinese characters, King Sejong created the new alphabet, or Han-gul, as it is called today, in 1443 and promulgated it in 1446 under the name Hunmin chong-um (Correct Sounds to Teach the People). His motive for creating Han-gul, as he stated in his preface to its explanation, was "to help commoners express themselves in writing so that they may appeal to government offices, seek measures to overturn unfair rulings, and make basic farming records."

After an initial period of active propagation by the royal court, interest in Han-gul gradually waned and with time it was totally ignored by the ruling class and barely managed to stay in use among commoners. The state of neglect continued for the next 300 or 400 years. Certainly, there were some scholars who studied the writing system, and the introduction of novels including Ho Kyun's Story of Hong Kil-tong, the first novel to be written in Han-gul, helped pave the way for Han-gul's
popularization, but it was generally left to develop on its own and underwent an indiscriminate process of transformation.

In the 20th century when Korea's modernization began, interest in the Korean language began to rise and with it came self-introspection. Many scholars began to re-systematize Han-gul and also to put forth rules of orthography and grammar. Their efforts culminated in the proclamation of the "Draft for Standardized Rules of Han-gul Spelling" in 1933, which established the 24 consonants and vowels of Han-gul as Korea's alphabet.

The word Han-gul was first introduced as a term for the Korean alphabet by Chu Shi-kyong, a renowned Korean linguist, in the early 20th century. Han-gul consists of 14 consonants and 10 vowels, the former based on the shapes of the mouth and tongue and the latter on natural rules of phonetics.

The Korean language is very different from other languages. Unlike English or French, the subject of a sentence comes first, followed by the complement, then the verb. Because the verb always comes at the end of a sentence, the inherent meaning, whether positive or negative, becomes clear only when a sentence is finished. Another characterizing feature is that a relative clause comes before, not after, an antecedent.

Because Han-gul is very easy to learn, Korea developed into a highly literate nation with an illiteracy rate of less than 10 percent. The structure of Han-gul is so simple and scientific that virtually anyone can learn it overnight. Its simplicity is becoming even clearer in today's information society as computer keyboards and software, initially provided in Roman letters only, are being replaced with Han-gul ones. A letter database search service using telephones is another example of how easy and scientific Han-gul is. The service involves using the numerical buttons on a telephone to express Han-gul letters. Han-gul letters are assigned to the ten buttons and suffice to communicate all needs.

An increasing number of people from various corners of the world are learning the Korean language today.It is included in the curriculum of many foreign schools or many foreigners visit Korea to learn the language. Koreans are justifiably proud that Korea's alphabet is so easy to learn and use that anyone with a will to learn can learn it, regardless of their nationality.

Koreans celebrate October 9 as Han-gul Day. This year will mark the 553rd anniversary of the alphabet's promulgation. Every Han-gul Day, memorial rites are held to honor King Sejong at Yongnung, his tomb, in Yoju, Kyonggi-do province, and at the Sejong Memorial Hall in downtown Seoul, which becomes crowded with people trying to teach children the significance of Han-gul