Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Naver, Kakao celebrate Hangeul
A screenshot showing Naver’s online exhibition on Hangeul to celebrate Hangeul Day. Captured from Naver
By Baek Byung-yeul
Naver and Kakao are attempting to expand the presence of Hangeul in the digital sphere while celebrating Hangeul Day on Monday, according to the two internet giants, Sunday.
Every year, on Oct. 9, Korea celebrates the national holiday to honor the invention of Hangeul by King Sejong of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).
The Korean alphabet is alive and well in the digital era, and Naver and Kakao have been working to facilitate the scope and creativity of its use.
Naver and its Naver Cultural Foundation have been running an annual campaign to beautify Hangeul since 2008, to increase the number of stories and information in Hangeul online.
This year, on the 577th anniversary of the Korean alphabet’s birth, the foundation celebrated the campaign’s 15th anniversary with an online exhibition called Stories About Hangeul We Are Making Together, highlighting Hangeul in the digital world.
For the online exhibition, the foundation received various Hangeul records and stories from users. The exhibition showcases a variety of stories, written in Hangeul, including a childhood diary, a note of encouragement before an exam, a welcome letter for an employee’s first day at work and the first letter from a child.
Seen is a cover of a kids magazine published by Bang Jeong-hwan, a pioneer of Korean children's literature and a children’s rights activist, in 1928. Naver exhibits various records and stories written with Hangeul to commemorate this year’s Hangeul Day, which falls on Oct. 9. Captured from Naver
The exhibition also showcases rare Hangeul records such as a first-grade Korean textbook from the 1980s, a kids magazine created by children's literature pioneer Bang Jeong-hwan, the oldest Hangeul letter, the first Hangeul novel, and subway tickets from the 1980s.
Some of the archives used Naver’s AI technologies such as CLOVA Dubbing and its generative AI service CLOVA X, to facilitate the spread of records written with the Korean alphabet.
“The exhibition implies that personal records written with Hangeul can be transmitted to the future by exchanging various thoughts, feelings, knowledge and information with people through new technologies and becoming a driving force for the rich growth of the digital Hangeul ecosystem,” Naver said.
Kakao will host Open Chat Lite, an open chat service that allows users to share thoughts and opinions about Hangeul-related topics such as conversing in pure Korean, finding common misspellings or using English lyrics in Korean.
Daum, Kakao’s portal site, will feature a Hangeul logo on its main page commemorating the day, as well as a service that allows users to show off their handwriting.