International Pen Pals

Communication with international pen pals is a brilliant opportunity to master a foreign language and learn more about any foreign country.

I have been chatting with people from different parts of the world for several years already. In my opinion, there are some great advantages of communication with international pen pals and I will share them with you right now.

Top Benefits of Communication with

International Pen Pals

1.  It is a great help in mastering your target language.

Communication in general is a great way to improve your language. However, you should keep in mind that for the purpose of learning the language, it is better when pen pals are native speakers of your target language.

When chatting, people usually use informal language, so talking to a native speaker is a good way of learning idioms, some slang, different expressions, etc.

Practice this type of communication often and you will soon notice fast progress in your writing and comprehension language skills.

When I just started talking to pen pals several years ago, it was a bit hard for me to express myself due to lack of my vocabulary and poor grammar.

However, I kept writing messages and tried to use new vocabulary as often as possible. Every time I could not find the right word to say something - I looked it up in a dictionary.

In some months I noticed improvements and realized another thing – I started thinking in my target language (which is English; my first language is Russian).

Start chatting, arm yourself with patience and you will get good results pretty soon.

2. Explore new country.

Discovering things about foreign country and culture is much more fun and entertaining from a pen pal than reading the same information in books or some tourist guides.

That is so true and here is the main reason for that. You never know who wrote this or that book about that particular topic. Has the author been in that country once or several times? Has the book been written by a person who had heard about that country from someone’s words? Or has it been written by a person who’s been living there for ages or even was born there?

You see – that really makes some difference.

3. You don’t feel lonely.

You can have meaningful conversations with real people any time you want. Instant messaging is something you can do easily, quickly and spontaneously throughout the day.

4. Your pen pal becomes your close friend.

Can international pen pals become your close friends? Of course!

When you just meet a new person, it is not so easy to exchange confidence at first.

However, the more you talk to your friend, the more you trust the person. Most likely, soon you will start talking not only about some general topics - your countries and cultures. You will connect more on a personal level.

Don’t be afraid to express yourself, discuss things that are important to you, share your opinions and ideas, talk about something personal. Be yourself with your new friend.

Thus, I met Luiza online some years ago. Now she is a great friend of mine and even helped me get some wonderful interviews with polyglots for this web site.

5. Visit a country of your dream and meet your pen pal!

One day you can even visit your pen pal! You will go to a foreign country but you won’t be alone there.

You will already have a friend who will be happy to spend time with and show best places. Isn’t it much better than just going sightseeing as a tourist and visiting the same places that every other tourist does?

Don’t think that studying process should be boring and "serious".

Take any opportunity to learn more every day. Talk to people and learn from them!