Belated Hangeul learners find life blossoms after literacy

A child and her mother view an artwork inspired by the Hunminjeongeum Haerye, which explains the proper sounds and use of the Korean alphabet, Hangeul, at an exhibition at the National Hangeul Museum in Yongsan District, Seoul, Sunday, the 576th anniversary of the invention of Hangeul. Yonhap

Seniors, migrants empowered by learning Korean alphabet

By Lee Hae-rin

For Choi Sun-ran, 79, exchanging handwritten letters and Kakao messages with her 10-year-old grandchild has become the greatest joy in life. She never thought it would be possible until she started learning how to read and write Hangeul, (the Korean alphabet), at Yongsan District Office's lifelong education center five years ago.

In all her life, Choi has been a hard worker and a dedicated mother who raised her children and gave them university educations while making ends meet delivering milk. However, being illiterate made her feel "guilty," as she had to ask for someone's help every time she rode on a bus, went to a bank or a hospital.

"Now that I know how to read, it feels like being on cloud nine every day, and Hangeul is the wings that make me fly," Choi said in an interview with The Korea Times.

Like Choi, Yoon Jeong-hee, 32, a marriage immigrant from Cambodia who moved to Korea 10 years ago, has seen her life starting to blossom after learning Hangeul. Five years ago, Yoon started her studies at the Migrant School in Seoul's Eunpyeong District to become a proud parent to her six children.

"Ten years ago, the world for me was just like a 'jet-black night because I experienced depression when struggling to communicate with family and making friends," she told The Korea Times. "However, ever since becoming literate, the world turned bright like a fresh morning and my life blossomed like a flower."

As Choi and Yoon show, over 2 million adults in Korea are unable to read and write Korean, taking up about 20 percent of the total adult population, according to the Ministry of Education's latest statistics on literacy.

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Kim In-suk, right, teaches a senior student Hangeul at Yongsan District Office's lifelong education center in Seoul, Oct. 7. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

The high percentage of native illiteracy, despite a world-ranking university entrance rate and education level, is a unique phenomenon found in Korea, according to Kim In-suk, the president of the Korean Literacy and Basic Education Association who has been teaching Choi for five years.

They are mostly women aged over 60, often found in rural areas, who had to work in factories and other workplaces at a young age while the country was going through war and poverty, Kim said. They were forced to give up their chance to learn so that their male siblings could and supported their husbands and children after getting married.

Since 2006, the government has provided adult literacy education based on the enactment of the Lifelong Education Act. The growing awareness and accessibility to literacy education provided people like Choi and Yoon chances to receive a belated education. In Seoul, over 31,000 seniors are receiving literacy education at lifelong learning institutions managed by the Seoul Lifelong Education Institute as of September 2021.

Due to their age and cultural differences, these late-time learners tend to be slower and less efficient in learning, the experts said, which is why their curriculum focuses more on real life issues than scholarly acquisition. The senior students are taught how to read store signs and carry out administrative tasks at a bank and hospital. The marriage migrants learn vocabulary and background knowledge about children's education and school life, which are what they most seek.

Seen is the illustrated poetry of Yoon Jeong-hee, titled "My Blossoming Life," with the illustrations of six flowers symbolizing Yoon with a Cambodian flag, her Korean husband and her six children. Courtesy of Seoul Lifelong Education Institute

Meanwhile, these late learners' academic will and passion is stronger than anyone else's, Kim said, because they chose to learn and enjoy the hard work that follows. When Choi's colleague Son Young-ja, 80, said that she wishes to come for class every day and to have more homework, all her peers laughed and nodded. They said studying Hangeul has become their dream, biggest happiness and gives them strength to go on.

On Oct. 6, Choi and Yoon were awarded with their works of illustrated poems at this year's senior literacy education exhibition in Seoul, along with 38 other late time Hangeul learners. Seoul Lifelong Education Institute holds the annual event with the sponsorship of the Ministry of Education, Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education to celebrate the senior Hangeul learners' hard work.

Poet Yi Mun-jae, who participated in the event as a judge, said that these Hangeul learners are "people who are born again as they gained literacy" and made letters from "closed wall to an open window to a new world."

Although the government supports the late learners and public attention on literacy education has gone up, the support system fails to provide equal learning opportunities to illiterate adults across the country, the teacher said. The government budget on literacy education is distributed to regions on an open exhibition basis, which makes the education programs unstable.

"The government, local governments and private sectors should work together to meet the growing and diverse education demands of illiterate adult," Kim said, "This may be their first and last chance for an education."