'Hangeul Festa 2024' Showcasing Diverse Cultures in Korean Script

Foundation Hangulnuri
Held Under the Theme of Hangul Used by People Worldwide

To commemorate this year’s Hangeul Day, a unique video contest was held that highlighted the spirit of creation by communicating with people around the world in Hangeul. Sponsored by Kyungdong Navien, the Hangeul Nuri Foundation hosted ‘Hangeul Festa 2024’ under the theme ‘Hangeul Used by the World.’ Now in its second year, the event featured stories, song lyrics, and national identities from around the world written in Hangeul. The format involved reading each theme aloud in the native language, then transcribing the native pronunciation and translated content into Hangeul. The Hangeul Nuri Foundation organized the event to preserve diverse languages and cultures worldwide by recording them in the phonetic script of Hangeul.

On the 16th, Hangeul Nuri announced that the contest received enthusiastic responses with 240 entries submitted from 48 countries using 41 different languages. The foundation announced 99 award-winning works, including the grand prize ‘Eutteum Award’ and first place winners in each category. The grand prize carried a $10,000 reward, and first place winners in each category received $5,000, totaling $62,000 in prize money. The grand prize went to Glenn Tiondo from the Philippines for his work titled ‘The Story of Chupagao Creating Humans.’ This piece introduced the creation myth of humanity passed down among the Ifugao people in northern Philippines. It was recognized for enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of Tagalog transcription by utilizing even the old characters from the Hunminjeongeum system.

Grand Prize Winner 'The Story of Jjupaga Making a Person'

The work by Ramatulahi Bari, which told the origin story of the Fula people, a minority ethnic group in West Africa, also drew attention. Although the awardee is of Fula descent, he grew up in Belgium and participated in the contest in Dutch. The Fula people have their own language but no script, so it has traditionally been recorded in Arabic. Bari narrates stories about the Fula language he heard from his family during his upbringing and the creation myth of the Fula people in Dutch. His recording of a language on the brink of extinction in Hangeul and sharing it with the world was praised as aligning with the spirit of Hangeul.

There was also a work that recorded a lullaby learned from a grandmother. Chikako Ooshiro sang a lullaby her late grandmother used to sing to her granddaughter in Ryukyuan and transcribed the pronunciation in Hangeul. Ryukyuan is a language spoken in the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, once used by about one million people but now declining due to the spread of Japanese. By writing it phonetically in Hangeul, the work preserved the uniqueness of the dialect and introduced a traditionally oral song that is difficult for people from other countries to understand.

All award-winning works can be viewed on the ‘Hangeul Festa website.’ Visitors can experience works that maximize the native pronunciation using Hangeul and capture the cultures of various countries through video. A representative from Hangeul Nuri said, "The works that demonstrated the potential to preserve diverse cultures through Hangeul were especially remarkable," adding, "It is a testament that King Sejong’s spirit of creating Hangeul remains relevant in 2024."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.