translate English to German: Before the invention of Hangul, the Korean people had no own script and Chinese characters, known as Hanja, were used. Lessons in Hanja were exclusively held for male members of the nobility, so most of the Koreans were effictively illiterate.
Bis zur Erfindung von Hangul hatten die Koreaner keine eigene Schrift, man verwendete stattdessen chinesische Schriftzeichen, Hanja genannt.