Did you have a pen pal in your foreign language class?

[sayitwell]

We had pen pals from France in my high school and middle school French classes.  I thought that was pretty cool.  Did you also partake in this?

[Czarownica]

Nope, my language classes never had us make any pen pals. I've got into penpaling (is that a word? ) a few years ago, but I didn't like it very much... I mean, all those people were nice, but those conversations were really...fake? For the lack of better word. Unnatural.

[pcgamer]

I am sorry, but I don't know what pen pal stands for.

[Gregor]

Pen pal = someone you correspond with by letter from another country.

I had one from Italy and one from S Korea, but it was all very contrived and didn't produce very much.

[LauraM]

I had the reverse situation in high school.  I was the pen pal of a student in Japan who was learning English.  She and I corresponded for several months and I found it was an enjoyable experience.  Her command of English and her handwriting were both quite good and I was impressed.  We exchanged photos and talked mostly about our schooling, family and what it was like in our respective cities. 

But as for pen pals in foreign language class -- Spanish, in my case -- we never did that, now that I think back.  Surprising, in retrospect. 

When I was in college I did a fair amount of corresponding in Spanish, but these were fellow students whom I had befriended, so it's not the same as pen pals whom one has never met.  Still, it was very helpful, doing all that writing, and especially getting feedback from the ones who were native speakers. 

[Jellyfish]

No, never thought of tha back then. Would have been fun. Nowadays I want one but only if it's a good looking Japanese girl..

[Trellum]

I never took a class or a full course in order to learn english, but I did have a couple of pen pals I ''met'' over the internet.  I must admit that helped me a lot to learn english, for me it was such a thrill to write e-mails to them everyday! 

I learnt so many new words, and that's how I started to get really familiar with the language.  My e-mails must have looked so funny tho,  I know they were full of mistakes, but I think all that practice helped me to improve a lot!  I'm still trying to improve my english, because I know my english is far from perfect. 

[sayitwell]

Well i really enjoyed my pen pal experience in high school.  I was surprised at how well my pen pal from France could communicate in English.  He had a strong curiosity about American culture, especially American youth culture.  I am even more grateful for my experience considering that most people never have the opportunity to have a snail mail pen pal from another country.

[tulosai]

I didn't.  That was okay for me, but to be honest, I really wish I had a French pen pal NOW.  It would be really cool to be able to write to someone in French

[kitkat0124]

I had a penpal before but not because of my language class. She is a friend of my friend. We been exchanging letters for few years, then met personally when she visited our country. We are still friends up to now.

[GetFresh]

I had a pen pal but not in a foreign language class.  Having a pen pal of the same language as your foreign language class could be very beneficial.  Since they know their own language they could help you improve as you write to them. I certainly wish I had a pen pal in my foreign language class.

[mh57]

During my time in French immersion we had pen pals that we would write to on a weekly basis about whatever we would like. Unfortunately, as we were forced to do it, it wasn't as enjoyable as it should have been and I didn't get much out of it.

[cinderr]

I sure did and I thought it was very cool! Those were the old snail mail days and my mom would never let me have a stamp! Can you believe it? How can one broaden their horizons when they are blocked by those in power? Perhaps the subject for another day!

[sayitwell]

I sure did and I thought it was very cool! Those were the old snail mail days and my mom would never let me have a stamp! Can you believe it? How can one broaden their horizons when they are blocked by those in power? Perhaps the subject for another day!

For some reason I never remember postage as being an issue.  I feel like the school paid for the postage or something like that.  I went to a public school.  I also had a pen pal during the snail mail days.  I wonder if kids today e-mail computer pals instead of penning letters to pen pals?

[leahcim132]

Yes, we did. I was in French class and we had pen pals from Burkina Faso. This was during French and we would practice writing in French to our pen pals. They would write back in French and we would have to reply to them. It was pretty fun . Unfortunately, my pen pal doesn't have an e-mail so we couldn't keep in touch .

[Topcho]

Well for a very short while I had a pen pal I met thanks to one magazine with a "searching for a pen friend" section, but it didn't really work out.

Anyway, later when I got into crafting, I made many  :grin: Not all of them are native English speakers - I've exchanged letters with people from Romania, Portugal, England, USA... We usually send out some small hand made crafts along, or cross stitch supplies, or do whole exchanges. But evem if it is just the letter, the feeling of receiveng something in the mail, handwrittend and just for you, is amazing!

I must say, that even if this helped me with the language, what I love most about pen palling is the emotion.

[polybus]

We didn't have any pen pals when I was learning French in school. Actually it seems to me like a good idea. I guess to the students it might just seem like more work sometimes, but any way you can try to engage the students that is probably for the best.

[mareebaybay]

No, I don't have a pen pal but I wish I did. I wish I had a pen pal who could help me with my every day studies. Having a pen pal would make learning another language much easier.

[marmunmrhundun]

No I don't have a pen pal , however when I was in Highschool I had one. It was one of the best experiences of my whole language learning process. It was shortlived though, because it only lasted a month. It was one of those special one time only things, to get us acquainted with them and tried to learn as much as we could in the little time period.

[xbrix]

I used to have a pen pal last year that lived in France, but the letters always took forever to deliver, so we only were able to send about 8 or so letters to each other.

[jfab]

I do but I didn't have it on my class though. I think I can still consider online friends from abroad pen pals right? Although it's more on email and chats these days.

[Bonyi]

Well I'm not in a foreign language class and don't have a pen friend.

[Baburra]

I didn't experience this in class, but in my younger days, I did meet someone online from Singapore that I exchanged emails and often chatted with. I just met her in some random chatroom, but we had the same interests and she knew English very well so we had no trouble communicating. We eventually lost touch and I still wonder where she is now to this day.