Do people still have penpals?

oldman said:
My wife does. She sponsored a 4 year old girl in Appalachia through our church. I never got involved in all the particulars, but she graduates from high school this June and she has asked my wife to attend, so that she can personally thank her. This is one of the things the sponsorship association doesn’t encourage doing. I haven’t figured out why, but why wife has her own ideas as to why. I do know they have written to each other since the child was able to print coherent sentences at least twice a month.
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Will your wife be attending the graduation? I imagine there are good reasons for the sponsorship association to discourage meeting. Sponsoring a child though is such a generous thing to do.
 

horseless carriage said:
Calligraphy is not a word that I was familiar with when I learned that style of handwriting. Since then though, it has become much more commonplace. It simply means a stylised form of handwriting. At school it was known as, Italic Script.
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well, whatever it is, it's great. I had a friend growing up, training to be a concert pianist. His handwriting was incredible, artistic. Not as good as yours, but pretty good. Lost art.
 
Gaer said:
In Fourth grade, I was Pen pal to my cousins in Norway. Their names were "Od" and "Id". The knew English.
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Oh, you are Norwegian! I have some friends who are Norwegian. Ruth's name is really Ruthkristin. She's very nice and super funny.

originally from Bergen, Hordaland...

I am pretty sure she is fluent.

you might like this...little video of drone flying over a Norway town... from this nice collection of nature videos that my wife and I like


have a nice night...
 

JonSR77 said:
Oh, you are Norwegian! I have some friends who are Norwegian. Ruth's name is really Ruthkristin. She's very nice and super funny.

originally from Bergen, Hordaland...

I am pretty sure she is fluent.

you might like this...little video of drone flying over a Norway town... from this nice collection of nature videos that my wife and I like


have a nice night...
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Thank you! It looks so lovely and peaceful.
 
I just messaged a former co-worker, now a Facebook friend about this the other day. We were messaging back and forth about keeping in better touch and I asked her if she was still in touch with her pen pals from years ago...maybe now also via FB. She responded that she was except for one who prefers snail mail to social media.
 
Back in the 1950's I had a girl from Florida who I met through reading Archie Comics that I became penpals with for many years. In the 60's she even attended my wedding. In 2015 she passed away and sadly I hadn't kept in contact with her like I wished I did, but I looked up her name and found out she passed.
 
Please don't throw things at me for resurrecting this old thread... 🥺 but I had a question and saw it's already been discussed... so I'll add it here. Do you guys think it would be relatively safe to do email "penpalling" from a global penfriend site I found? Years ago I had up to 80 pen pals at a time (postal mail.) I love writing. I love emailing. I'm thinking that if I have a dedicated email for it (I do) and I don't give out personal information, it should be safe?

Someone asked here today what we do to keep our minds sharp and for me, corresponding with people either around the world or in my own country via email would do that for me. Learning new things is what keeps my mind in shape. My only concern would be that I'd maybe talk too much because I answer mail as soon as I can and some people don't like that. 😬 I'll check for responses in the morning... closing down for the night now to get some reading done!
 
Relatively safe? Sure. Go for it!

PS. As for talking too much: I have an email friend who keeps the exchanges going longer than I like. After a couple of days of too much, I just stop responding (until next time). You could always tell people up front that you have such a tendency, and that they needn't feel obligated to reply to every email.
 
Update on this... I found a place that I joined. I seriously don't think I'm going to like it. It was hopeful for a while... but although they're very firm in saying "this is not a dating site," I'm thinking people ignore that. Within an hour I started getting requests for contact but when I pull them up, it doesn't feel right. Like I want email *friendship* and a lot of those people are specific that they (the males) want only female penfriends and many specify an exact age limit, location, etc. That isn't something that should come into play for friendship, and especially when a profile clearly says "married."

So anyhow, I'm rapidly concluding that I'm the only soul on earth who wants true friends via email to share days, joys, and sorrows with. It's disappointing, but I think that's still another change society has undergone. Can't say I like it much. 🥺
 
CallMeKate said:
Update on this... I found a place that I joined. I seriously don't think I'm going to like it. It was hopeful for a while... but although they're very firm in saying "this is not a dating site," I'm thinking people ignore that. Within an hour I started getting requests for contact but when I pull them up, it doesn't feel right. Like I want email *friendship* and a lot of those people are specific that they (the males) want only female penfriends and many specify an exact age limit, location, etc. That isn't something that should come into play for friendship, and especially when a profile clearly says "married."

So anyhow, I'm rapidly concluding that I'm the only soul on earth who wants true friends via email to share days, joys, and sorrows with. It's disappointing, but I think that's still another change society has undergone. Can't say I like it much. 🥺
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I think if you are on a site, stay on the site and use their pm system and any ignore or block facilities they may have. Once you go to email you have left the security of the site and you have no idea what photos or links you may be sent.

Obviously do not give out any personal details. I have an email friend. We were on the same forum years ago and swapped email addresses when the site closed down and have kept in touch since then. There are lots of people on here who have said they like to chat so, perhaps you might find someone who you get on with and who would want to exchange messages here on the pm?
 
@CallMeKate That's a problem on a language exchange site I belong to as well. I suggest you ignore most of the people who write to you. Many of them don't even read the profiles; they just send a "Hello" to dozens of people.

Instead, do your own research. Go through the profiles, and approach a few people who seem interesting and appropriate. Good luck!
 
Trish said:
I think if you are on a site, stay on the site and use their pm system and any ignore or block facilities they may have. Once you go to email you have left the security of the site and you have no idea what photos or links you may be sent.
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Thank you, @Trish... you know, I didn't consider that. I knew I'd be more comfortable with email than the on-site messaging system the place has... but although I'd not give out personal information, the risk of links and photos I don't want to see hadn't occurred to me. Whew... yes, definitely something to keep in mind!
 
NorthernLight said:
@CallMeKate That's a problem on a language exchange site I belong to as well. I suggest you ignore most of the people who write to you. Many of them don't even read the profiles; they just send a "Hello" to dozens of people.

Instead, do your own research. Go through the profiles, and approach a few people who seem interesting and appropriate. Good luck!
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Definitely been ignoring those, yes. I've looked at some of the profiles and some are easy to spot as people to stay away from. Others seem okay, but they only allow me to contact one person a day (well, every 12 hours I guess it is but I'm not online long enough to do two a day).
 
Trish said:
For a while, as an eight year old, I had an Australian penpal. My teacher at the time took part in an exchange with an Australian teacher and they arranged for their respective pupils to become penpals. I was recently reminded of my penpal when chatting to an old school friend who mentioned it and it brought back memories of those thin blue airmail letters which unfolded into one big sheet. I am not sure that you can even buy airmail letters anymore.

I can't remember my penpal's name but I do remember she had an older sister who was very keen to write to one of my older brothers but, at that time, my brothers were more interested in football than writing to girls! 😊
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Yes, as a kid, our school encouraged "Pen Pals". I believe that nowadays, I'd call them email contacts? I try to keep in touch with the outside world via online. Seriously, the airmail paper, envelopes and stamps kit, it's just a bit much, aka expensive...

A simple Christmas card and New Year calendar is almost £40+ to send overseas from UK. Even worst of a list when the recipient doesn't acknowledge the receipt or say thanks. Bummer!🙃
 
CallMeKate said:
Thank you, @Trish... you know, I didn't consider that. I knew I'd be more comfortable with email than the on-site messaging system the place has... but although I'd not give out personal information, the risk of links and photos I don't want to see hadn't occurred to me. Whew... yes, definitely something to keep in mind!
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Staying on the website and using the pm to chat to people gives you a level of security (and perhaps anonymity) you do not have if you go off the site. (y)
 

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