Kazakh student gets response letter from Queen Elizabeth II

A school student from Pavlodar in northern Kazakhstan Sofia Kairbayeva has received a response letter from Queen Elizabeth II, Tengrinews reports.

14-y.o. Sofia wrote a letter to the Queen in December to congratulate the English monarch on the holidays, but no one in her family believed she would get a response. However, it is came as a wonderful present for the winter holidays for Sofia. “Our daughter takes a lot of interest in the history and culture of the United Kingdom and has repeatedly expressed her admiration of the English Queen. We were surprised when she decided to write a letter to the Queen and congratulate her on the New Year’s holiday. She wrote the letter on an ordinary copybook page with childish naivety. We did not expect the letter even to reach the addressee. Because we did not even know the exact postcode and address. However, when we received a response from Buckingham Palace, we were were very happy together with our daughter. It was a real Christmas fairytale,” Saule Toigambayeva, the mother of the girl, said.

According to her, in response to the letter, Queen Elizabeth II wrote that she personally read the message of the Kazakh schoolchild, and she was pleased to receive it. Because of her tight schedule, the Queen asked her office staff to write the response letter. "Queen Elizabeth ll thanked our daughter of the letter and said she was pleased that our daughter was interested in the country and the language. She also congratulated her on Christmas and New Year and expressed hope that someday Sofia would visit England," schoolgirl’s mother said. Postcards with sites of England were attached to the letter from Buckingham Palace.

Now young Sofia is working hard on her English hoping to visit the country of her dream someday. “I am happy that the Queen found the time to read my letter. I received a response and it was a great pleasure. Now my dream is to go to England and I believe someday it will come true,” Sofia said.

Writing by Assel Satubaldina, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina