"Class, you have a new special assignment!" said Ms.Joswick the 6th grade teacher.

It was a seasonably warm day in New York, but the air conditioners were broken, which meant the class was hot and the fact that the students were restless was not helping.  

"By special do you mean hard?" Asked Stephanie without raising her hand.

"No, I mean fun--"

"Like a game?!?" yelled Peniel from the back

"No, and two points of for the two of you for calling out.  I mean you're all getting penpals!" said Joswick excitedly causing her brown hair to bounce and her blue eyes to gleam. "They're from South Korea and they are learning English so you're going to help by writing them letters.  In the letters you have to introduce yourself and speak a little bit about our culture here, treat it as a journal entry.  Any questions?"

The class was stunned, how were they supposed to write a letter to someone they didn't even know let alone in some country on the other side of the planet.  What would they say?  How should they start? Thought Crystal as a piece of paper was passed back to her.  Then as if reading her thoughts, Ms.Joswick said:

"It's alright, just speak normally, write about things you like and ask them questions about themselves."

So, Crystal went to work, not paying attention to the talking around her, she was excited.  It was hard for her to make friends in person, but this person lived so far away, how could she possible be shy? She hopes that her penpal writes a lot and that she responds with a letter that's like five pages long.  In the end she decides to make herself look cool by using cool words that she uses on the internet.  At the end of the class, all the students are handed an envelope with the addresses already written on them, all they need to do is put in their letters and the envelopes closed.

"Hey, Crystal, what did you write about?"  Asked Stephanie who was sitting in the seat to Crystal's right.  

Stephanie was Crystal's best friend, they were together so much that their friends said that they looked alike.  Crystal didn't see it, neither did Stephanie.  Crystal thought Stephanie was beautiful and pulled off anything with her cute nose and cat like eyes, while she thought of herself as a mediocre version of a cartoon character with her bad teeth, pimples, and messy hair.  Stephanie had some acne too, but even with that she managed to look beautiful.

             **********

About a month later in South Korea, a class recieved letters.  They were told this was to help them learn English and learn to read handwriting.  Yongguk could not care less, although he wanted and liked learning English, he did not know what to write to someone he's never even met.  

The teacher handed him a random envelope and YongGuk immediately ripped it open to reveal a single piece of college lined loose-leaf paper.

"If you need help reading your letters, let me know." Stated the teacher.

The letter went as follows: 

Dear new penpal,

            How are you? What’s your name? I’m Crystal!  I’m hoping to gain a new friend even though we’re on opposite sides of the world. (:  I’m only in sixth grade and I’m not allowed to talk to strangers, but does it count if I’m just writing?  I’m not sure, but whatever, just don’t tell my mom.  Well this is for school so would she care?  I doubt it.

            Ms. Joswick told us to write about ourselves in this letter since it is only our first one.  I’ll leave the questions til the end then.  Like I said, my name is Crystal!  I live in New York xDDD. I’m 11 years old, but I’ll be 12 soon and then I’ll be 13, an official teenager, which means my mom will let me hang out with my friends at the mall and stuff.  I really like the candy Twizzlers, and I have really black hair, it’s curly too.  I don’t only speak English, I also speak Spanish. My neighbor is teaching me Chinese, she’s still really nice to me and I love hanging out with her, sometimes she even lets me help her around her restaurant.   I heard that you guys live in South Korea.  We’re supposed to be helping you guys learn English, which cuz I rather teach you other things like how to get Luigi on Super Mario Bros. or how to get the secret ending in Kingdom Hearts 2.  I’m learning Korean, so maybe you could teach me really cool shiz about there too, but for now I’ll just tell you about here. 

            We’re also supposed to tell you about the culture here, which is confusing cuz I am not sure wut culture really is.  It’s really fun here xDDDD.  Like whenever it snows ride our sleds down the block since it’s a huge hill.  One time I went so fast that I  ALMOST WENT INTO THE STREET.  I was lucky that my older brother was there and stopped me, although my tooth got chipped.  Now, I have a fake tooth LOLZZZ.  Do you have a fake tooth? Or brothers? Or sisters even?  I have an older brother and younger sister, which is really annoying sometimes.  But I am never ever lonely.  Also my aunt lives across the street from me so my cousins always come and play (x .  

            Sincerely,

                        Crystal

YongGuk had to ask for definitions of some terms  like "xDDDD" and "LOLZZZ."  They were just ways of expressing emotions like TT and kekekekeke.  As was his luck, he recieved the letter of someone far too hyper and someone so young, but if it's what the assignment calls for, he'll respond.  

Dear Crystal,

            Hello, I am Bang YongGuk.  I guess in American it would be YongGuk Bang.  I am fine, English is not as hard as I expected, but I guess this will also help me.  This is the first time that I send a mail to another country.  Its hard for me and other Korean students to write in English I am sorry for the few grammatical error TT.  Teacher told me to tell you about myself.  I am 15 years old. 

            I want to tell you about Korea’s history.  Korea was kingdoms before.  There was the Gojoseon, Silla, Baekje Kingdom, Goguryeo Kingdom, Goryeo Dynasty and Joseon Dynasty.  Joseon dynasty was the last one and it still influences Korean way of life.  They adopted confucianism and King Sejong the Great was alive in this dynasty.  He invented hangul which is like the alphabet in Korean even though it is a little different. 

            No I do not have a fake tooth but I do have a lot of teeth and they are all real.  I have one older sister and one older twin brother.   I am youngest.  I was born in Incheon then lived in Ijak Island and now I live in Incheon again since I was very young. 

            Now I have to end this letter.  its time to eat dinner I’ll wait for your letter.^^

By. YongGuk

***************

(1 YEAR LATER)

Crystal sat at home, excitedly scribbling a reply to her penpal.  Outside, the wind howled as winter was fast approaching New York.  Although she has many friends, Crystal though YongGuk was sincere, he never tried to sugarcoat things.  He told her when she did something stupid, even if they were an an emtire hemisphere away from each other.

Dear YongGuk,

         How have you been? I know letters take really long to get there, but I wanted you to be the first to know anyways! I got into the school spelling bee!  I lost though.  That , I cried and blamed allergies.  I was really sad, I don't even remember what word it was I got wrong.  First place got a brand new iPod shuffle ): .

        Have you heard Kanye West's new album and Lil Wayne's?  They're 808s and Heartbreak and Tha Carter III.  The song Love Lockdown is really good and it is doing really well here.  Tha Carter III is doing good too, but I do not like Lil Wayne that much he curses alot.  My brother likes him alot and always plays his songs around the house.  I HATE IT!!! >:((( I started listening to rock music more though and do you have Myspace or Facebook?!?  I have never seen you or don't know what you look like.  Not that I care anyways.  Also, I listen to My Chemical Romance, Mayday Parade and Forever the Sickest Kids, they are so kewl.  You should check them out, I think you would like my Chemical Romance a lot, they have really good songs and they kind of remind me of you.  Yes I do think you are kinda cool [=.

         Also my mom will not let me cut my hair!!!!! I want side bangs :p (no not side yous).  We fight a lot now, but she is so unfair, I really get mad at her sometimes.  i told my best friend Stephanie about you too.  I showed her your last letter, but I did not let her read it.  I just wanted to let her know you are real.  What have you been up to?  If you could eat one food for the rest of your life what would it be? I would choose fries I think.  I would be mad if they did not have ketchup tho.

         Sincerely,

               Crystal

                                              ***************

In South Korea, YongGuk opened the letter with a smile on his face.  Even if he found the girl quite annoying sometimes, with her overly long letters and weird spelling of words, she was nice to him.  She was honest and she didn't try to hide herself nor did she pry too much into his life.  Besides that, she always responds and has helped him with his English.  A lot of what she said was pointless, but now he was understanding English better, so whatever,

Dear Crystal,

         I am sorry, I spelled your name wrong alot in the other letters.  English is still a little hard, but I am getting better thanks to you.  I have been well lately.  It's been almost a year since we sent our first letters to eachother so thats cool too I guess.  Maybe you could win the next spelling bee that you're in, you are smart.  You should not cry over things like that it does not make sense but if it made you feel better then it is okay.

         I did listen to both of the albums and I like them too.  Lil Wayne curses alot but its rap music so I think it is normal.  Maybe you should let your brother send me a letter he sounds cool, kekeke. I also listened to Rick Ross's new album it was cool. Rock music is cool too but I like rap music better.  Its straight from the heart.  All music is but rap music seems more to me.  I have black hair and a smile full of gums that is how I look.  I do not have those two things.  I am still doing hip-hop and am very excited about it.  It is very fun to make music even though it can be very hard to make a song sometimes.

       I would eat ramyum.

       Sincerely,

             YongGuk