An alphabet a king could explain in an afternoon.
Korean Hangul was designed in 1443 under King Sejong and published in 1446 so ordinary people could read. Today it has 24 letters whose shapes depict tongue and lip positions: ㄱ shows the tongue at the palate for 'g/k'. Letters are grouped into syllable blocks, which is why it looks like a character script.
Useful: You can learn to read Hangul in a few hours; understanding Korean takes longer.
Source: en.wikipedia.org