[역사 편지 - 중등부 최우수상(존 니롤라)] 위대하고 자랑스런 세종대왕님께

Dear King Sejong,

Hello King Sejong, my name is John Niroula and I am a 9th grader who attends Van Nuys Highschool in Los Angeles, California. I am very honored to be able to write a letter to you as I have heard and read many great things about you. Your name is constantly mentioned in Korean history as an important figure. Actually, I knew nothing about you until 3 years ago when I started to attend Saturday-Korean school (I am half Korean and half Nepalise so I wanted to learn my mother's language. At the time I was in 6th grade at the time and could not even read or write the slightest Korean, but now I am able to read and understand very well). There I was able to learn the Korean language, Korean history, and Korean culture. Furthermore, I was able to understand, even without ever having been there, that Korea is an amazing country full of interesting history traditions, through all the stories I read and pictures I saw.

While learning about Korean in general, I learned a great deal of information about you as well and came to develop a deep respect for you. You are a truly amazing person. First of all, you were the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea, which is an important task as if you had not been king, Korea might not be what it is today. Moreover, you are one of the two only kings in all of Korean history to have the term "Great" added to your name (the other being King Gwanggaeto). Also, you were an amazing scholar. You opened a great school, the Jibhuhnjunee, for other scholars to study, and I have heard from my parents as well as my Korean teacher that you were diligent and loved to learn new things, which is similar to me.

Lastly (and what I personally think the most important) you were an incredible inventor. Although your greatest invention was, and will forever be the Korean language (Hangul) (or more specifically Hoonminjyunghon, which later became the basis for the modern Korean language). I, personally know how hard it is to make a writing system from scratch. This is because when I was young my friends and I would try to make a secret code so that we could write to each other without others knowing what we wrote; however, we failed at this task, as it was extremely difficult and nearly impossible to make something entirely new and unique, but you were able to. Thanks to you, thousands of Koreans do not need to write with Chinese characters, but have a language of their own that is easy to learn and write.

My mother says you must have been a very thoughtful, caring person to have loved the general public enough to gather scholars and create a whole new writing system. Personally, I agree with my mother because I do not think just any king would do so much for "his people" when you could have just lived a luxurious life all to yourself (but that does not sound like you). Although you are most famous for the invention of Korean, you also made a water clock, a sundial, and a rain gauge, and even though I have no idea how you were able to make these inventions, I respect you for your intelligence to do so because I have never invented anything that was or could have been useful to an entire nation in my life. So far, I have never been to Korea, but when I do (and I know I will in the near future) I wish to visit your tomb and statue to learn more about you. Until then, I will work hard in Korean school to learn Korean as it is a very valuable gift you left behind, just for us Koreans.

Sincerely,

John Niroula