Hangeul Festa: your language's sounds, written in Hangeul
The Korean Cultural Center UAE describes Hangeul Festa as a special cultural competition where foreign participants introduce their own language and culture by writing the sounds of their language in Hangeul or Nuri-Hangeul. The 2026 edition's application period ran May 15 through August 13, open to foreign nationals who know Hangeul — Korean nationals aren't eligible to apply directly.
The official Hangeul Nuri Foundation page explains the mechanic concretely: write a story in your own language, transcribe it into Hangeul or Nuri Hangeul, and share the video. There are two categories. The Hangeul category uses the standard modern Korean writing system as it exists today. The Nuri Hangeul category uses an extended system, proposed by the foundation, designed to represent sounds from world languages that standard Hangeul's current letters don't cover — a set of revived and adapted characters based on the original design principles of Hunmin Jeongeum, the 15th-century document that introduced Hangeul.
The direction you've probably already seen: Korean into Roman letters
If you've read a Korean street sign, a K-drama subtitle credit, or a menu, you've already encountered the reverse process. Korea's National Institute of Korean Language maintains the official Revised Romanization system, which converts Korean sounds into Roman letters using two core principles: it's based on standard Korean pronunciation, and it avoids symbols other than Roman letters wherever possible.
The rules get specific fast. The consonants ㄱ, ㄷ, and ㅂ are written as g, d, and b before a vowel, but as k, t, and p when they appear before another consonant. The consonant ㄹ is written as r before a vowel, but as l before a consonant or at the end of a word — and a doubled ㄹㄹ becomes ll. When a romanized word could be read two different ways, a hyphen can be added for clarity: 중앙 becomes Jung-ang, and 세운 becomes Se-un. Personal names follow their own convention, family name first, then a space, then the given name — 민용하 becomes Min Yongha, sometimes written Min Yong-ha.
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Source: Talk To Me In Korean · Why you shouldn't rely on Romanization
Same idea, opposite direction
Put side by side, the two systems are mirror images of the same basic task. Hangeul Festa asks you to take sounds from your own language and find the closest Hangeul (or Nuri Hangeul) representation. Korea's Romanization system takes sounds from Korean and finds the closest Roman-letter representation. Neither system is translating meaning — both are mapping sound as closely as the target alphabet allows.
That's also why both systems need special-case rules. Hangeul Festa needed an entire extended Nuri Hangeul system because standard Hangeul, designed for Korean phonology, doesn't have letters for every sound in every language. Korean Romanization needs context-dependent rules (the g/k, d/t, b/p, r/l shifts) because Korean consonant sounds don't map onto a single fixed Roman letter regardless of position. Sound-mapping is never a perfect one-to-one substitution in either direction.
TWO DIRECTIONS
Sound-mapping runs both ways
Compare how the same basic idea works in each direction.
- 01
YOUR LANGUAGE → HANGEUL
Hangeul Festa: write your language's sounds using Hangeul or Nuri Hangeul.
- 02
KOREAN → ROMAN LETTERS
Revised Romanization: write Korean sounds using position-dependent Roman letter rules.
- 03
SOUND, NOT SPELLING
Both directions map pronunciation, not the source alphabet's letters one-to-one.
Source: Hangeul Nuri Foundation · Hangeul Festa 2026 · National Institute of Korean Language · Romanization of Korean
What this means for you, festival entrant or not
If you're considering entering a future Hangeul Festa, the practical takeaway is to start from sound, not spelling: say your story's key words aloud, listen for the syllable breaks, and only then look for the closest Hangeul or Nuri Hangeul match — don't try to map your language's alphabet letter-by-letter onto Hangeul's alphabet.
If you're just trying to read Korean signage or names correctly, the same logic runs in reverse: don't assume a Romanized Korean word is spelled the way it sounds in English. Check whether a consonant like ㄹ or ㄱ is in a vowel-adjacent or consonant-adjacent position, since that position is what the Revised Romanization rules actually key off of — not the letter alone.