Find your international friend by doing Snail Mail Pen Pal
Hello, there! It's been a long time since the last time I updated my blog. I totally forgot my password, and I'm just glad I got my account back! So now, I will regularly be posting here.
Well then. So let's talk about pen pals.
You must figure out how to find a friend who is willing to exchange mail with you. In my experience, I got friends from around the world online from being their pen pals. How, you may ask? Well, let's take a trip back in time to 2009 when I surfed the Internet for the first time.
I actually had created my Facebook account the year before in 2008, but I didn't know how it works. I just randomly added people who crossed on my home page. I still remember the first time I added my friends from school and many of my friends from other countries who I didn't really know in person. During this time, I realised that my English was very poor. I was in secondary school then, and the Internet was still quite new to me. I used to do a lot of stuff on my computer just for fun, like video games, and I never tried to discover anything else besides video games.
Since English is the main international language used throughout the world, I decided to use English as my main language to talk to people from other countries. I tried to contact one of my friend who was on my Facebook friends list. That girl was from Denmark, and sadly she didn't know English well. So I used Google Translate to chat with her.
Even though it was quite boring and difficult because I had to use Google Translate, the one thing that made me happy was this: I had a new friend from the other side of the planet. I didn't know what Denmark looked like. I didn't know what language they speak. (How silly of me, right? It's obviously Danish.) But from this experience, I started enjoying my new activity of pen pal exchanges. And from this girl, I made other new friends, too. There was some friends I talked to, from Japan, South Korea, China, the United States, England, Australia, Russia, The Netherlands, and others. From this, I exchanged culture and learnt a little their basic saying in their native language. Wow! It was just so amazing!
If you are a person who loves to exchange cultural knowledge and is interested in doing snail mail pen pal, then you might like this activity. So I have some tips for you to get more friends from other countries:
1. Don't be shy!
Don't be shy to start new conversation with someone. Even if they aren't fluent in your language, that's fine. They will understand at least they know what you intent to say. Additionally, it's a honour for them too if you want to learn their language.
2. Use English as your main language!
English is the main language that most countries strive to learn. Any country you go to, there is bound to be someone who knows English somewhere. Don't worry if you are not fluent in it. Use a dictionary between your language and English to help with words you're unfamiliar with, and use an online translator like Google Translate if needed.
3. Try to engage with their interest.
Usually, if you and your friend from another country have the same interest, this will be a good sign for both of you because you will have many topics to talk about. And from here you can exchange information to each other about your hobbies, the news, etc.
4. Use the Internet to find foreign friends.
I used a few wonderful websites to find new people to talk to. I used these sites in particular:
Very often, I also found them on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
5. Respect each other's differences and beliefs.
The different cultures and lifestyles may be a bit of an issue, but try to be an open minded, and soon you will find it easy to respect each other.
At times, the conversations you have may get intense. That's fine. As long as you keep in touch with them, this is a good thing. Usually, I always ask for them to exchange mail and very often they will ask you to exchange souvenirs as well.
I got a lot of benefits from these exchanges: I learned their culture and even their languages (well, I didn't learn how to speak their language, but I know what their language is). All in all, these experiences helped me to become an open minded person. And I really think it could help others as well. Once we step out of our comfort zone and start exploring cultures outside of our own, all sorts of doors begin to open.
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