Pen Pal is old fashioned but it still exists

​Long before Internet and the digital age, there was pen pal. Pen pal in an traditional sense of writing letters to the friend who is a pen friend but haven’t met in person as the sender & the recipient does not know each other personally.

So what is a pen pal? Here is the definition of the meaning of pen pal. 

Noun

“A pen pal is someone write friendly letters to and receive letters from, although the two of you may never have met”. 

This is a the meaning of the word “pen pal” from Collins dictionary. 

While the Covid pandemic occurred in 2020 & all of us were all staying at all & didn’t see family and friends, I have personally thought of some new hobbies from language learning to writing a blog (which is why I startled to become an blogger as I am today). 

So last week Thursday, I started having an account on Pen Pal site called Pen Pal World website. Currently, I am in the early stage of setting up my profile there as I created without using my name (my actual name) & that I only received one message from someone from Vietnam. 🇻🇳

My goal is that if I want to visit any country in the world, I don’t have to wait to make friends & learn some languages, I can make friends online & that is only by being a pen pal (without using my real name because of safety reasons as I am a careful person until I am convinced that I can go forward by letting someone to see me in person gradually & taking a friendship into the next level).

I think we can all agree that the last two years under the Covid pandemic have been tough & that we couldn’t spend times with family and friends. So for me to start being pen pal, I am doing it in the old skool (old school as in with letter “k”) way. I am sure many of you have heard the expression. “Old school meets new school”. Pen palling although it is old fashioned, it still exists especially everything is on the Internet. All online.

So yeah, I never done a pen paling before given I am very good with typing & writing & that it is my strength as I excelled great in the English lessons during my time in education (primary school, secondary/high school & college). Pen Pal nowadays is not much traditional like it was before the internet & social media sites (writing & posting letters to addresses). It’s good when we try things something new & things rather than always the usual & old stuff.

So I have started doing a pen paling stuff. Even it is old fashioned. 😀🙂 At least I tried to make friends when I was in Barcelona, Spain in 2018 which I was not successful except I only made one friend who is a friend to my dad’s friend & I made two friends one year later in Paris, France in 2019. 🇪🇸🇫🇷🇪🇺🗺✈️🚄

Also, I am sure that may be some of you who have done pen paling before the internet and social media because pen palling was the “Instagram” of the day. I recall saying in last month’s blog post that we have to use things that we have got. Otherwise, it becomes not existent. I also said it would be unfortunate if we abandon some things that are old & going for the latest trends. Pen Pal was the trend in the pre internet era. It is still a trend. It’a not like what it used to be pre internet days. 

So pen palling is a great way to make friends online as you follow the rules & being careful online while being a pen pal to new friend. Whether is by writing traditionally or online. I know the older generation do writes letters to his/her pen pals & even prisoners do write to pen pals too and school children write to pen pal as part of learning which is a fun activity.

Finally, I would highly recommend to anyone that if you want to make new friends whether is visiting any country in the world, learning languages, learning culture or knowing each other’s  hobbies and interests, you can start by making an effort to go to any pen pal websites or apps. ✍️🙂😀⌨️

So what are you waiting for? Start to become a pen pal (if you want to which is your choice). 

Tbat is all I want to say about this interesting topic.