Why I have Pen Pals as an Adult

Hi all,

Today is December 13th so hopefully you all have mailed your Christmas/Holiday cards. While I was writing out greeting cards I realized how rare it is for us to write anymore. The last time I actually took the time to write was probably in college. Every since then with work it's very small amount of writing and a lot of times typing on the internet.

Letter writing is on the decline, people no longer send cards or letters to their friends or loved ones anymore. So I decided to dedicate a little post on why I (as an adult) still participate in a Global Pen Pal program.

Postcards and Letter from my Pen Pals

I've participate in a pen pal program since a sophomore in High School which would be in 2001 (wow it's been that long). I opened the account as part of my German class in Herr (Mr.) Schneider.   He felt that we needed additional activities for us to practice our German so he signed all of us up with letternet. As listed on the website, letternet is the largest, free, pen pals club. They have members from 140 countries. Letternet is a part of the Deutsche Post which is the German Post Office.

Just a quick note before I move on to to the list, you can sign up if you are underage with permission of a parent or guardian. Otherwise go to http://www.letternet.de/web/friends/login?langId=en_US to sign up for a free account. Once you create an account you have to answer I believe 3 quick personality quiz and then choose activities you like from a list they have available. You do have to put in your address but it's not available to the public. You can list what language you would like your letter correspondence in (mine is in English, German and French).  You can also pick the gender and age limit of your penpal. And finally, they will give you a list of possible matches that you can ask to be your pen pal or you can wait for people to find you and contact you. They will not receive your full name and address until you accept their request.

8 Reasons Why I have Pen Pals as an Adult:  

1. Having Pen Pals helps me realize that the economy presently stinks around the world.  Over the past 10+ years I've exchanged letters with over 20 people but have remained in constant   contact with about five of them. All of my constant pen pals are in their 20s and we wrote about how difficult it is to find a job post University life. 
2. Having Pen Pals helps me Practice, Practice, Practice! As much as I LOVE the free language learning sites to refresh my memory such as livemocha and duolingo, there is nothing better than actually conversing with a real person. I've learned a lot of slangs and practical words.
3. Having Pen Pals helps me to Collect Stamps? Sounds silly I know but ever since I was a child I love collecting stamps. Whenever I travel I would send a postcard to myself. I don't know if you've seen European stamps, they are so pretty. 
4. Having Pen Pals makes me a better domestic friend. My Pen pals are from Germany, France and Canada so as 'active' as we are things do get in the way. I try to at least mail one letter per month but sometimes things get in the way. I've had one pen pal relationship that went sour because we were both just not spending enough time to actually send each other meaningful letters. Having a pen pal is not easy, it takes a lot of time to establish a relationship and a level of trust without meeting the person.
5.  Having Pen Pals improves my patience and analytical skills. From the first letter to the point when I am ready to share more personal stuff about myself and send a picture or a small gift can take anywhere between 4-8 months depending on how often a letter is exchanged. Because I don't end up seeing my pen pal's face (unless I try to stalk them on Facebook, vice versa), I don't really know what they look like.  I think in many ways the pen pal process is a blessing because it allows me to focus on content and not on how a person look. 
6. Having Pen Pals benefits me when I'm traveling. The goal of any long term pen pal relationship is to eventually meet each other in person. After sending each other photos of ourselves on vacation, photos of our pets, sending each other books, music, etc you want to eventually meet the person you've made this connection with. What's better than staying with your Pen Pal and having a free tour guide? 
7. Having Pen Pals allows me to expand my horizon. From my pen pals, I've found new authors, musics and movies I like. I love when they send me their edition of books I love such as Harry Potter. Harry Potter in French or German? J'adore! 
8. Having Pen Pals gives me an excuse to buy pretty papers and envelopes. When I started on letternet I would write my letters on plain white paper or those yellow pads. In return, I would receive letters in such beautiful papers, decorated with artistic swirls and stickers and I must admit I felt overwhelmed. You do not have to buy pretty papers to have a pen pal but I'm a sucker for those letter writing sets so having Pen Pals gives me an excuse to splurge at papyrus.

I hope this post inspire you to join a pen pal program or just send a handwritten note to a family or friend during this holiday season. In case you are interested the current postage to Germany or France is $1.10. I did not realized the fees went up in the last few months. When I started sending letters to Germany it was 70 something cents and then last year it was 98 cents. So if you are thinking of getting the stamps, I would recommend the global forever stamps which is $1.10 (just in case the postage goes up again).

If you have any other questions about letternet or comments, please post them below.

    Until next time,

***Disclaimer: I've never tried other pen pals programs so I can only vouch for Letternet based on my experience as a member.***