▲ banners using Chilgok grandma fonts

Have you ever heard the word Manhakdo in Korean? It means those who attend school at a later age than normal people. Even only a few decades ago, it wasn’t common for a woman to go to school in Korea. As a result, they did not learn to read and write at school. Illiteracy became one of their biggest regrets. Recently, many adult literacy education centers across the country have created special programs to help these women to achieve their dream of becoming literate.

A literacy education center in Chilgok-gun in Gyeongsangbuk-do provides opportunites for about 400 late learners to learn how to read and write Hangeul. One special achievement that has emerged from the Chilgok adult literacy education program is that new fonts for a computer word processor have been developed from the writing styles of these older women. 

Last May, Hancom, Korea’s leading office software development company announced that they developed new fonts based on these Chilgok grandmothers’ writings for their word processor HWP, which is equivalent of Microsoft Word. Chilgok-gun selected five characterful styles among their 400 writing styles and developed them into new fonts, all of which were named after the original writers. Hancom also uploaded these fonts onto the 2021 version of Hancom Office. 

Now, these grandmothers who have longed to join this literate society not only achieved their dreams but also face the world proudly. The banners publicizing these fonts were installed on the main streets of Chilgok-gun, and furthermore these fonts are being used throughout the country now. With the growing popularity, National Hangeul Museum has recently designated these grandmothers’ fonts as relics and decided to preserve them permanently.

[61st edition of Weeklymonday / June 14, 2021]