Poems From South Korea: Halmeonis Learn Hangul for the First Time

My halmeoni — “grandmother” in Korean as she is affectionately called — never studied beyond elementary school. In her family, education was reserved for the eldest male child; she helped out with farming and domestic duties. For most of my life, I didn’t even know she was literate. All the letters I had ever received from my grandparents while I was in college were written by my grandfather, who went to high school. I had never even seen her handwriting until a few years ago, when I asked her