10 Days to Hangul: Writing

10일 한글 쓰기

Author: 홍 솔

"A wise person can grasp it before the morning is over; even a foolish person can learn it in about ten days." — Jeong In-ji's Preface, Hunminjeongeum Haerye Long ago, I came across Jeong In-ji's preface and the claim that "even a foolish person can learn it in ten days." Half-doubting, half-curious, I began studying the creation principles behind Hunminjeongeum. I first applied the creation principles of the consonants and published Ganada Hangeul Textbook (가나다 한글 교본). Afterward, for students who couldn't make progress using the conventional vowel order, I applied the creation principles to the vowels as well and taught accordingly. As a result of that research and classroom practice, in 2016 — the 570th anniversary of the promulgation of Hunminjeongeum — I published 10-Day Hangeul Reading (10일 한글 읽기). 10-Day Hangeul is a textbook that teaches Hangeul not as "letters to be memorized," but as "letters to be understood through principle." The principle of iconic form — the five basic letters (ㄱ, ㄴ, ㅁ, ㅅ, ㅇ), each shaped after the position of the speech organs used to pronounce it The principle of added strokes — a consistent rule for adding a stroke as a sound grows stronger (ㄱ→ㅋ, ㄴ→ㄷ→ㅌ, and so on) These two principles are explained at a child's eye level, helping learners understand why each letter is shaped the way it is — not just what it looks like. Once learners grasp the principle, they can reason out the rest of the alphabet on their own, without memorizing every letter individually. Ten days is all it takes — one step a day, a structured curriculum DAYLearning Focus Day 1 Basic consonants (ㄱ ㄴ ㅁ ㅅ ㅇ + ㄹ) Day 2 Basic vowels (ㅡ ㅣ ㅗ ㅏ ㅜ ㅓ) Day 3 Combining consonants and vowels into sounds Day 4 Extended consonants via the stroke-adding principle Day 5 Reading words without final consonants (받침) Day 6 Tense consonants and re-derived letters Day 7 Learning final consonants (받침) ② Day 8 Reading words with final consonants Day 9 Complex vowels Day 10 Forming simple sentences A book born in the classroom Author Hongsol (pen name; real name Lee Myung-suk) is a longtime elementary school teacher. Through years of teaching students who had not yet mastered Hangul, as well as multicultural and newly-arrived immigrant students unfamiliar with Korean, she felt a pressing need for a Hangul textbook truly suited to them — and that need led her to research and create this book. As both a published poet — A Desperate Love (poetry collection), Sweeping the Sunset (teaching journal), Let's Go, Hangul Country (children's verse) — and an educator, she brings together pedagogical precision and emotional warmth, the defining strength of this book. Recommended for Parents who want to teach their children Hangul properly, starting from its principles Elementary teachers and Korean language instructors working with early-grade, multicultural, or newly-arrived immigrant students Korean language educators who want to share not just the alphabet but also the historical and cultural story behind it with foreign learners This is a writing book. 10 Days to Hangul: Writing, Learned Through the Principles of Hunminjeongeum Author: Hongsol (Lee Myung-suk) · Publisher: Namu-wa-gaji ISBN 979-11-954080-3-0 Ten days to learn Hangul, the way it was designed to be learned.