CD ROM production by Dr. Sek Yen Kim-Cho titled: “Let's Master the Global Script Nurigeul in an Hour” is an indispensable pendant to her remarkable book, The Korean Alphabet of 1446 , which was published in 2001 by the Humanity Books, Amherst , New York .

The Korean alphabet of 1446, known as Hangeul , is truly one of the great achievements of human invention. It was created in 1443 and promulgated in 1446 by the Korean monarch Sejong (1397-1450) himself. The official title of this alphabet is “ Hwunmin Cengum which means “ The Ortho-phonic Alphabet (OPA) for the Instruction of the People.”

Nurigeul is a globalized version of Hwunmin Cengum developed and extended by Dr. Kim-Cho to a universally applicable phonetic alphabet for global application.

Nurigeul means “global script” which is a combination of the Korean word “ nuri -globe” and “ geul -script”.

The genius of letter design of the OPA-Nurigeul lies not only in its lucidly rational structure, but also in its use of letter shapes. Nurigeul can be described as “visible speech sounds,” which pictorially depict the place of articulation and the manner of articulation as the sounds are being produced.

The objectives of designing Nurigeul (OPA) are fourfold.

(i) First, to apply Nurigeul for transcription of speech sounds in order to develop Speech-To-Text system through the speech recognition system

(ii) Second, to apply Nurigeul for Global Literacy Program for non-literate and preliterate people,

(iii) Third, to establish a database with Multilingual Dictionary using Nurigeul as the mediating bridge language,

(iv) Fourth, to transliterate the Bible in the languages of unreached people without writing systems.

In all the cases listed above, the necessity of acquiring Nurigeul is the primary and utmost importance for Nurigeul users.

Thus, the production of audiovisual aid would be a great help. Also the general public will be greatly aided to see the unique structure of the Korean Script and its underlying cultural heritage.

 The objectives of the ‘Nurigeul CD-ROM' production are threefold.

• First, to acquaint people with the design principle of the Global Script, Nurigeul.

• Second, to enable people to read Nurigeul within an hour of lesson by using

illustrations explaining the design principles of Nurigeul.

• Third, to apply Nurigeul for:

(1) Global Illiteracy Eradication Project;

(2) Creating Nurigeul for the languages without writing systems;

(3) Transliterating the Bible in the multi-vernaculars in minority languages.

In order to fulfill the objectives of CD-ROM production, Nurigeul must be taught the way the originator has designed. Since the design principle of Nurigeul is based on the visualization of the articulatory-acoustic features of speech sounds, there is a strict correlation between the graphic shape and graphic function. Thus, once we acquire the Nurigeul symbols, we will be able to learn the whole Nurigeul system by heart.

On the other hand, Roman orthographies or other segmental writing system using symbols, whether they are alphabets or syllabaries, will require a huge burden of memorization. In addition, we cannot, in the case of Roman orthographies, develop or extend the letter shapes on the generative principle as Nurigeul does. Nurigeul has five basic consonants from which virtually every pronunciation that is known to human can be constructed systematically and effortlessly. (Please see the attached ‘Script for Nurigeul CD ROM Production.)

As mentioned before, since Nurigeul is defined as ‘visible speech sounds', the correlation between each segmental sound (i.e., phoneme) and each segmental symbol (i.e., grapheme) must be illustrated by graphic design or animation. In order to do so, the media of Flash Program and Director Program must be utilized for the effective illustrations. CD ROM is the only media that can show this correlation visually.

Without the aid of ‘Nurigeul CD ROM', speech scientists engaged in the speech-to-text, literacy workers, missionaries, and Nurigeul Corps people wouldn't be able to teach the Nurigeul efficiently.

The ‘Nurigeul CD ROM' is the best and kindest instructor for teaching Nurigeul, since it is ‘re-playable media' whenever we want to review it.

As the proverb goes, ‘ Seeing is Believing ', without looking at the letter shapes explained through illustrations, Nurigeul cannot be taught efficiently.

For the CD ROM Production, English Version will be the master CD. Dr. Kim-Cho already has written the ‘Script for CD ROM' in English. Because, once English version of the CD is completed, multi-lingual versions may follow using the method of ‘dubbings' or ‘separate editions', depending on the situations of the languages.

Dr. Kim-Cho has already embarked on the project with the help of several excellent students and faculty who have recorded the voice part for English.

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1) Alphabets' are orthographies which have separate symbols for vowels and consonants, as in Roman (Latin), English, Spanish, or Russian

2) ‘ Syllabaries ' are writing systems which have separate symbols for each syllable, such as Japanese Kana ( Hiragana or Katakana ), Chinese, Cherokee.