Exhibition features digitization of Hangeul

Visitors look at a special exhibition, “A New Name in a Digital World, Code-Named D55C AE00,” at the National Hangeul Museum in Yongsan, Seoul, Oct. 5. / Courtesy of National Hangeul Museum

By Baek Byung-yeul

Like other languages, the Korean alphabet Hangeul has developed with usability in mind.

Many had a difficult time adjusting to use word processors rather than handwriting, but the digitalization of Hangeul has slowly entered our lives and the indigenous writing system is still essential to Koreans in the digital era.

To celebrate the first anniversary of its opening, the National Hangeul Museum showcases a special exhibition displaying development processes of Hangeul in the digital age.

Titled “A New Name in a Digital World, Code-Named D55C AE00,” the special exhibition introduces how much effort is needed from many researchers to make Hangeul fit into the digitized era. The code D55C AE00 means the Unicode code point of Hangeul.

“When the personal computer was introduced in the 1980s, many complained about the inconvenience of using English. This marks the starting point of digitalization of Hangeul, triggering local researchers to invent programs for Korean users,” said the museum’s curator Shin Ha-young.

Comprised of five sections ― word processors, keyboards, codes, fonts and corpus ― the exhibition provides an opportunity to glimpse at how Hangeul has adjusted to the digital era.

The first section features various kinds of word processors including the first-ever Hangeul word processor, which was developed by a high school student in 1982. A 1992 family newspaper using world processor is also featured in this section.

Other sections also showcase eye-catching items, including a variety of Hangeul keyboards, different Hangeul fonts used for different purposes and the corpus, a great example of big data use as well as a large collection of written or spoken texts that are used for language research.

The exhibition runs through Jan. 31. Admission is free. The museum is located near exit 2 of Ichon Station, subway line 4 and Jungang line. For more information, visit www.hangeul.or.kr or call (02) 2124-6200.