The shape of a sound

You already say taekwondo every week. By the end of today you will be able to write it — 태권도 — and read it back out loud.

That is not a trick. Korean writing was designed in 1443 to be learned in a morning, and the design still works.

English writes letters in a line: t-a-e-k-w-o-n-d-o. Korean stacks the letters of one syllable into one square block.

So 태권도 is not eight letters. It is three syllables, each drawn in its own square: