On Sept. 29, a colorful vehicle was spotted outside the steps of Sayles Hall, sporting tiles containing Korean letters across its surface. The appearance of the vehicle — named the Hangeul Truck — on campus marked the start of a week-long celebration of Hangeul, the Korean alphabet.
The truck drove up College Hill as part of its tour of several East Coast schools, including Harvard, Yale and Princeton. On Oct. 9 — celebrated annually as Hangeul Day in South Korea — the truck made its grand finale in New York City’s Times Square. The tour was organized by the Korean Culture Center New York, the Ik-Joong Kang Foundation and Samsung Electronics.
More than 1,000 Brown students interacted with the truck by typing English messages that were translated into Korean on the display screen, according to Hye-Sook Wang, associate professor of East Asian studies and coordinator of the Korean Language Program at Brown. Other activities surrounding the truck included the popular game “ddakji” played with folded paper tiles, as well as a station that translated students’ messages to their future selves into Korean.
For around 10 years, the KLP has organized a variety of events during the week surrounding Hangeul Day, including lectures and performances from student martial arts and dance groups, according to Wang.
Following the arrival of the Hangeul Truck, this year’s events included a Korean Game Day held last Tuesday, a guest talk by Gyuhyun Park on the origin of Hangeul on Thursday and a traditional Korean music workshop on Friday.
“Organizing these events requires a lot of commitment in terms of time and effort, and lots of organizational skills,” Wang said. “However, since we do this every year with very capable and dedicated colleagues, the process was quite smooth.”
After an explanation of the main rhythms within Gugak, a type of Korean traditional music, audience members were called up to play the instruments themselves.
During Korean Game Day, student volunteers from a range of Korean classes assisted with setting up and tabling events. The games included Korean jacks or “gonggi,” a face-painting station, a Korean traditional clothing try-on station and a “dalgona” candy-making station.
“All the events are really fun,” Iris Yang ’26 said while volunteering at the gonggi table. “This is my first time volunteering (at Game Day), but I’m having a really good time.”
“Game Day is such a lively and fun environment,” said Kyuwon Moon, assistant teaching professor of East Asian studies. “Everyone, regardless of their Korean level, can participate. It always brings such good energy, and I love seeing the laughter and joy it spreads across the Main Green.”
On Hangeul Day, Brown’s Department of East Asian Studies hosted Park for a lecture titled “Hangeul: Containing the Order of Nature and Numbers.” After discussing the interconnectedness of emotion, color and sound, Park dove into “Haerye,” the original text that explains the creation of Hangeul. Park told attendees that he hoped the lecture would spark students’ interest in linguistics as a whole, beyond just the Korean language.
The final event of the week included a workshop with music instructor Kyungsun Kim. The event centered around an explanation of “gugak,” or Korean traditional music, featuring instruments such as the “janggu” — an hourglass-shaped drum — and the “gayageum” — a 12-stringed instrument. After Kim explained the main rhythms within gugak, audience members were called up to play the instruments themselves, turning the lecture into an interactive experience.
Wang hopes that the KLP’s yearly Korean Language Week exposes the broader Brown community to more aspects of Korean culture.
“While students are introduced to Korean culture through various traditional and modern (or) popular channels, those who are not taking classes may not have a chance to learn about Korea,” Wang said. “It is our hope to reach out to them and bring their attention to Korean culture.”
