Traditional pen pal

[villainesayre]

Hello! What do you all think about having a traditional pen pal? Is it even possible nowadays in the era of the Internet and social media? I'd really love to write some traditional letters with people around the world! Learn about languages, maybe sending some cute stickers and small regional sweets... That would be nice right?

[kazukitakamura126]

That would be nice, it reminds me of a project we had in elementary school where we would write a letter to a pen pal, I don't remember how that works. Though with the advance in technology as you stated its easier to have pen pals on social media. Speaking which I actually have a digital pen pal from High school, we met in January but, didn't really start talking until the start of this month.

[villainesayre]

We once had a project in High school (oh my it was almost 6 years ago) and we talked with some Spanish guys (there weren't any girls on their let's call it 'team') and I exchanged literally 2 emails with him cause he said that he won't talk with me if I'm not blonde...(maybe he assumed that all polish girls are blond or something?) and that's how my pen pal project ended haha... That's why I always dreamed of having a real pen pal and sending traditional letters have more value for me than just some emails.
But that's good that you can talk with your pen pal!

[mariusthered]

I is a nice thing i use to have some pen pals myself when i was younger, but you should also be very careful before giving out your postal and home addresses. if you were to do this it would be a lot safer to use a post office box.

(sorry for being the party pooping old fart here)

[villainesayre]

Yeah, I'm well aware of that! But I don't know if in Poland there's a possibility of to use post office box.... hmm

[mariusthered]

I just thought I would mention it to everyone, I know we have a lot of younger readers here.

[SandraMJ]

Dang, sorry to hear that! As a Spanish person, I can assure you that we don't think that, haha. Though there are substantially more blond people over there than over here. I'm more of a fan of emails, but if you'd like to resume your Spanish studies, I'd totally love to learn a new language 8D

[kazukitakamura126]

I'm sorry to hear that just shot your email down without talking to you first. Well I get why a traditional piece of mail would be more genuine, it was written by their own hand after all. Speaking Spanish I think my pen pal is Spanish or at least I think she is. She can speak Spanish, has a Spanish middle name which is "Sarahi"(the name she prefers over her first name) and was born in Venezula. I haven't asked her but, I think that would be awkward. : (

[villainesayre]

It was just this one particular case! I was somehow sad that other classmates talked for a longer period of time with their pen pals. Also it was on English classes so both parties were supposed to speak in English but I'd love to learn Spanish so maybe we could exchange emails? Polish is my native language so if you'd like to learn a little bit of Polish feel free to PM me with your email address!

[villainesayre]

I belive that it's the purpose of pen pals? Learning about where they live, something about their culture and stuff like that! I'm really interested in being a pen pal cause one can learn a ton more stuff than from books about travel!
And in traditional mailing it would be awesome to receive a postcard from for example Venezuela! I love collecting things and it's also very personal, I treat it as an adventure

[kazukitakamura126]

She lives here in the States though but, it would be cool to get a post card from anywhere. Like you said the culture of the place where they came from will be displayed there. You sound like you would love to travel the world and experience the different cultures. i'm a home body due to my comics but, I appreciate when people pay homage to different cultures in their work.

[efdvorsky]

I had pen pals during jr high and high school and it's just...so different than emails or social media.

It's instant with social media, sure and it has its perks.

But I genuinely got excited whenever I'd get a letter from them. I'd send them a message telling them I got their letter and occasionally doodles.

Even if you talk to someone every day, there's a bit of a personalized gesture from mail. You could also send stickers or even local snacks and trinkets just to show you appreciate them. Honestly traditional penpals should be encouraged just because it forms a bond and it's fun.

the bad thing is REMEMBERING to write the letter and finding the time to send the care package. But maybe it's just me |D

[noctuidae]

I used to write to a girl around my age who lives in Philippines. She didn't have a computer, so we wrote letters to each other; if you took into account the time it took for a letter to get there, and then the time for a reply to be sent back, we heard from each other once every 2-3 months! it was very nice, though. we talked about school and our families and the types of television we watched. unfortunately i got busy with my own things and couldnt find the time to write to her anymore.

[mimidelbx]

OMG having a pen pal is one of my dreams! hahahahah
I love the idea of actually writing a letter and have to wait for weeks or months to receive a reply!
When i was younger i used to collect cute paper, that was supposed to use for sending letters!

[angelfire]

When I was younger (about 10ish years ago 0.0) I moved overseas to Europe.. My best friend, who still lived in the states, and I would write letter to each other on these fancy American Girl postcards. I'd always wait for the mail to come. Even after moving back, I havent seen her, but we still talk through chat.

I wish we could go back to letter writing. As ineffecient as it is, there's something exciting about waiting for a letter to come in the mail.

I think like other things in this era, pen pals have evolved too. I mean look st it this way. What are pen pals? Strangers you talk to without ever meeting them. Isnt that what we're doing now through Social media and even these forums? The idea hasnt gone anywhere, just...evolved ^^

[Laeva]

I really like writing and receiving letters and I have a few pen pals!
Since me and my friends went to different cities or even different countries, I just started to now and then send a card or letter and some decided to write back and now we exchange mail regularly.
I also tried out postcrossing.com where you can create an account and then you get a random address from one of the many members and you have to send a card to them. As soon as it arrives you get a notification by that person and a third member gets your address to send a card to you. So you receive mail from all over the world from complete strangers. I still think that's a great idea but now I have so many pen pals that I prefer to write to them whenever I have free time to do so.
I also got a pen pal that way because one of my "receivers" was just so amazed by the card I had sent her that she wanted to keep in touch but eventually I didn't get a reply anymore. I still don't know what happened to her.

[TennaShoe]

I had a penpal in New York (I was in Montana) for a couple years in.. 5th grade and part of 6th.

It was really strange hearing about the city from a single individual. In oldschool chat rooms, you didn't really talk about where you were from as easily, or you didn't know if it was true. Everyone had a pretty fake identity when online chatting was new to it.

I used to penpal some of my old dA friends from 2005-2007. We'd send fanart to each other and some local snacks. One was from Russia, one from Netherlands and another from United Kingdom.

I still talk to them all, but Netherlands one probably the least. They got a sizeable family now. xD

I'm now waiting for my visa to get to marry the one from the UK. : D