Hangeul / Han’gŭl Day 한글날

Hangeul / Han'gŭl Day 한글날

Today is Hangeul Day (한글날) in South Korea, the day when they celebrate their alphabet. This year is the 563rd anniversary of the promulgation of Hangeul by King Sejong the Great in 1446.

According to The Korea Herald, the Korean government is keen to encourage people all over the world to learn Korean and plans to increase the number of Sejong Hakdang, centres teaching Korean, to 500 by 2015. At the moment there 16 Sejong Hakdang in China, Japan, Russia, USA and a couple of other countries, and there are plans to open a Korean language centre in Sri Lanka.

Korean is also apparently taught in hundreds of universities in some 60 countries, and increasing numbers of courses are offered in Asian countries such as China, Thailand, India and Japan. Also, some Korean companies with operations in China are offering incentives, such as promotions and business trips to Korea, to Chinese workers who become fluent Korean.

By the way, here’s a useful site that transliterates from Hangeul in Romanization and vice versa.

Russian transliteration

Yesterday I came across a useful site that shows you how to transliterate Russian into various Latin transliteration systems, and into other alphabets such as Greek, Arabic, Thai and Georgian. The site also has an transliterator that transliterates Russian text into various transliteration systems; a transliterator that converts Chinese Pinyin texts into Cyrillic, and another that converts Japanese text in Hiragana or Katakana in Cyrillic.

Here are some example transliterations of the Russian version of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Original Russian text
Все люди рождаются свободными и равными в своем достоинстве и правах. Они наделены разумом и совестью и должны поступать в отношении друг друга в духе братства.

German transliteration
Wse ljudi roschdajutsja swobodnymi i rawnymi w swojem dostoinstwe i prawach. Oni nadeleny rasumom i sowest’ju i dolschny postupat’ w otnoschenii drug druga w duche bratstwa.

Greek transliteration
Βσγιε λγιουντι ροζνταγιουτσγια σβομποντνιμι ι ραβνιμι β σβογιεμ ντοστοινστβγιε ι πραβαχ. Ονι ναντγιελγιενι ραζουμομ ι σοβγιεστ’γιου ι ντολζνι ποστουπατ’ β οτνοσγιενι ντρουγκ ντρουγκα β ντουχγιε μπρατστβα.

Georgian transliteration
ვსე ლიუდი როჟდაიუტსია სვობოდნიმი ი რავნიმი ვ სვოემ დოსტოინსტვე ი პრავახ. ონი ნადელენი რაზუმომ ი სოვესტიუ ი დოლჟნი პოსტუპატ ვ ოტნოშენი დრუგ დრუგა ვ დუხე ბრატსტვა.

Another feature of the site is a dictionary of Russian slang, which is available in many language combinations.