Penpalling with Global Penfriends

My oldest studied Greek as a language this past school year. (At first he used Rosetta Stone, and later, Duolingo. But that's a story for another day.) In looking for ways to enrich that learning, we looked around for ways to connect with the Greek culture and he really liked the idea of having a penpal. Turns out there are a number of sites out there with the aim of connecting international penpals. We found the site Global Penfriends and we've had a good experience with it!

Through Global Penfriends, you can search for penpals by country and by age range. When W searched for kids ages 8 - 12 from Greece, a few profiles popped up. The way the site works is you send a brief message to see if the person would like to connect. After a couple attempts that didn't yield responses, W heard back from a boy his same age from Athens back in April and they have been writing back and forth ever since! At first, W was so excited each time he received a new message and he would sit down immediately to write back. The novelty has worn off and he usually lets a week or so pass between correspondences now, but it has been fun to see their relationship continuing through the summer. Shortly after connecting with the boy from Greece, W received a message from a boy in Germany looking for a penpal with whom to practice his English. W was compelled by some of that boy's similar interests so he has been writing with him as well. He is going on over three months writing with these two different kids he's never met.

They write about the usual penpal topics you might expect of an 11-year-old: favorite sports, instruments they play, video games, school, birthdays, weekend plans, climate, holidays. But there have been some special communications W has really appreciated as well. When W was trying to plan some Greek food to cook this spring, he researched a lot of ideas but couldn't decide, so he asked his Greek penpal, E, about his favorite traditional foods. E's personal opinions greatly influenced W's decisions on what to cook.

His global awareness has grown a bit through having international penpals. 

W comments a lot about how impressed he is with his penpals' English. It makes W smile when they (rarely) write a sentence with the verb tenses a little off or words missing (and the mistakes help him guess in what ways their languages work differently), but the main sentiment is awe that kids his own age from abroad are conversing in a foreign language with ease.

Almost every single time W receives a note and replies, I see him Googling Celsius/Fahrenheit conversions, or getting out the ruler to compare centimeters to inches. He does this not only to understand facts his penpals have told him, but he also chooses to try to write in these terms himself, trying to tell them how cold it was here last winter in Celsius and how much snow we receive in centimeters. Since W can't speak fluent Greek or German, using those systems of measurement is one of the ways he can make an effort to reach across the cultural divide. 

He had to learn what his penpals mean when they talk about how they spend their "holidays," and what his German friend was referring to when he said football was his favorite, and how the 24-hour clock works.

International or not, letter writing or emailing is a chance to practice writing of course. It's also just a nice at-your-own-pace way to practice relationship/conversational skills-- like the balance between sharing stories about yourself and authentically responding or asking questions about the other person. There have been a few times, when W has me check over one of his notes before he sends it, that I've suggested he do a little more of one or the other.

Because we don't actually know the people on the other end of the emails, using Global Penfriends has been a great natural way to talk about and practice internet safety as well:

• All notifications from Global Penfriends come through my (parent) email address.
• W corresponds with his penpals through the site and we didn't have to exchange any other contact info or even full names.
• I read every letter W sends and receives.
• When one of his penpals shares a link, W knows to ask us whether he can click on it.
• When he does a Google search to better understand something his penpal has written about (and any time he does online research for any reason), we talk about how to look for trustworthy sites to visit and read. 

Originally we set out to find a penpal to enrich a foreign language study. But it's been a lot more than that. My favorite moment was a few weeks ago when W said, "If I ever go to Greece, it'd be really cool if I could actually meet him." We're a long way from that day, but I like that we've expanded his horizons far enough to think about that. :)