With much pride, South Koreans prize Hangeul (한글), the Korean writing script. In the 15th century, King Sejong (세종대왕) methodically developed Hangeul, a script that contains 33 letters and is written in syllabic blocks. The script, designed to mimic the shape of the speaker’s mouth, makes the reading easy to learn. Prior to the creation of Hangeul, Korean script based off of Chinese characters made reading and learning difficult. King Sejong created the new Hangeul writing system to increase national literacy.