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In the summer of 1894, China and Japan were at war and battling for hegemony over the Korean Peninsula. Somewhat ironically, Korea, at the time, was often referred to as “The Land of the Morning Calm.”
I began learning the Korean language almost 50 years ago. Perhaps the most basic error I made, and the error of my language teacher, was to spell out Korean words in the familiar alphabet of many European languages: Latin or Roman. Only later did I begin to understand the simple beauty of Hangeul and its straightforward representation of Korean language phonetics. Most people can learn to read Hangeul with only a few hours of work. Writing takes a bit more practice, and although I have been reading and writing Hangeul for most of my life, my handwriting is poor (but then, my English handwriting is no better ― I am impatient). With the advent of computers, typing in English or Hangeul is much faster and more accurate for my lazy hands.