Global voices celebrate Hangeul at 1st Sejong Hangeul Olympiad

SEJONG -- Two events kicked off a new campaign this week to celebrate and elevate Hangeul, the Korean writing system and cornerstone of the nation’s culture, by cultivating legions of Hangeul ambassadors around the world.

On Tuesday, the day before Hangeul Day, the inaugural Sejong Hangeul Olympiad brought together 105 contestants from 24 countries to showcase their Korean language skills.

Designed to encourage Korean learning and reward exceptional learners, the competition, held in the city of Sejong, has a grand vision of nurturing 100,000 learners as Hangeul ambassadors in their respective countries.

On Wednesday, a national holiday marking the proclamation of Hangeul in 1446, around 7,000 people ran alongside rapper-turned-philanthropist Sean in a fund-raising run to support the Hangeul promotion campaign. The 2024 Hangeul Run with Sean had two courses: a 10.9-kilometer route -- the length a nod to the date of Hangeul Day -- and a 5.15-kilometer route, whose length coincides with the date of King Sejong's birth.

Both events were co-hosted by Sejong City, The Korea Herald, Herald Biz and the Sejong Culture and Tourism Foundation.

The Olympiad, held at the Government Sejong Convention Center, was an all-day competition featuring multiple contests that measured language skills.

For the inaugural competition, the organizers invited international students enrolled in Korean universities and educational institutions, with plans to expand participation to a wider audience next year.

The participants hailed from various regions across Korea, including Seoul, Uijeongbu in Gyeonggi Province, Jeonju in North Jeolla Province, and Sokcho in Gangwon Province.

They were from dozens of nationalities, including Turkey, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Iago Izidorio Lacerda, 23, a participant from Brazil, has been in Korea for only two months. "I began studying Korean because I found the pronunciation of Hangeul beautiful," he said, adding that responding to a question in Korean is still challenging for him.

Two Ethiopian and one Taiwanese teamed up with team name “Spicy Samgak Gimbap.”

United by their love of spicy food, they chose the name to symbolize their bond.

Shenkute Rahel Solomon, 27, from Ethiopia, said "The name represents the three members coming together like rice and seaweed in gimbap," with the aim of speaking Korean in a "spicy and flavorful” way.

The competition kicked off with the "Digital Hangeul Merchants" event.

In teams of three, participants explored a one-kilometer radius around the venue to discover connections to Hangeul and create short videos. Their task was to uncover hidden elements of Hangeul in the city of Sejong, named after the Hangeul inventor, and produce content for the Hangeul Olympiad’s Instagram. The videos were then voted on by employees from government ministries, public institutions in Sejong City, and the general public.

The next round was a quiz focused on knowledge of Hangeul.

Participants answered questions such as, "Is Hangeul a script created by King Sejong?" "Are there 14 basic consonants in Hangeul?" "Was King Sejong the 10th king of the Joseon Dynasty?" and "Does the Korean language have tones?" by signaling their responses with their hands, indicating either O (true) or X (false).

Competitors were eliminated for wrong answers. The team with the last remaining member won.

After more than 30 questions, the last person standing was Hong Jinghui, 25, a master’s student from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies' Graduate School of Interpretation and Translation. She lived in Beijing until high school and has been studying in Korea since her university years.

In the third round, titled “Sejong Letter to the King,” teams were tasked with delivering one-minute speeches, with the top team from each round advancing to the next. The topics for the first two rounds were: “Define K-Pop” for the first round and “Define Korean cuisine” for the second.

The four teams advanced to the final round, which had the theme of “Korean concepts that are difficult to understand when translated into a foreign language.” The finalists addressed topics such as honorifics, polysemy (words with multiple meanings) and idiomatic expressions.

One participant shared an anecdote about being invited to a friend’s party and responding with “Gwaenchanh-da” -- meaning "(it's) okay." Although she meant she wanted to join the party, it was misunderstood as a decline. The friend then replied, “Then let’s meet next time."

Another participant recounted her surprise while watching a Korean drama, where a character used the expression “Gwi meogeotnya?” (literally “Have you eaten your ears?” but meaning "Are you deaf? or "Can’t you hear me well?").

The final contest was about Korean dialects, which required participants to prepare a one-minute speech about their personal experiences with dialects, with only an hour to prepare. Each contestant shared unique stories, showcasing the diversity and nuances of regional dialects in their presentations.

The final winning team, which received a grand prize was "Stars of Sejong," composed of Karimov Suhaili, 27, from Tajikistan, Aitalieva Nurzhamal, 25, from Kyrgyzstan, and Hartane Alaa, 22, from Morocco.

Upon receiving the award, Karimov Suhaili said, “We did not expect to win and were already packing up. I felt emotional when our team was announced as the winner, reflecting on the fun I had with the other members and how we learned dialects in the morning. I am sincerely grateful for the unexpectedly positive result.”

The Grand Excellence Award was given to the teams: The Great Kirgiz-Baek People, Hanbit Gowoon, and Do You Know Chinggis Khan. The Excellence Award was also presented to several other teams, including Yong Ryong, Sabong, Sejong’s Descendants, Hangeul Bank, We Can’t Lose, and Geulyeoul.

In the Special Awards category, the Viewer’s Choice Award went to Dahannim Guk, while the Judges' Choice Award was presented to the Inha University Fairies. The OX Quiz Special Award was given to the Hope Team, the Jeonsangseo Special Award to Consonant Rain, and the Dialect Total Points Special Award to the Colorful Team.

All participants wore white T-shirts featuring Sungyeongeum, or labialized consonants. These are characters that were part of Hunminjeongeum when it was first created, but are no longer in use in modern Korean.

"Along with the global craze for K-pop, K-dramas and other aspects of K-culture, interest in Hangeul is also growing day by day,” Herald Corp. CEO Choi Jin-young said at a closing ceremony. “I sincerely hope that everyone gathered here today will once again recognize the importance and beauty of Hangeul and take the lead in promoting its influence worldwide."

The event was sponsored by the National Hangeul Museum. Serenity Golf and Resort served as the main supporter, with additional backing from Simone, Yido and Samkoo.

Song Seung-hyun contributed to this report.