Have you ever heard the words “PENPALS, PEN – FRIENDS, SNAIL MAIL”? I want to introduce you to these words, which conceal a really interesting movement that is all about people’s pastimes, hobbies, social connections and traditions.
All of these words refer to writing, correspondence and sending letters. The key word is “A PEN” – PARKER – which dominates these terms. So people have been writing to each other ever since the first writing, the first symbols, the first letters. It was already important to convey a message, to record facts or to express feelings. Human language was always evolving and so was writing. Symbols were replaced by letters and words, language systems emerged and people began to communicate more and more intensively not only orally but also in writing.
Correspondence by letter was particularly popular in the 17th and 19th centuries. It was the main means of communication between literate people, the nobility and the wealthy.
As literacy rates have increased around the world over the centuries, science and writing are now accessible to everyone, regardless of gender, background or wealth.
Since the 20th century, with the development of industry, people have been able to communicate their messages not only by writing letters, but also by radio, later by sound and by telephone.
In the 21st century, technology has made it possible to send e-mails, to communicate in virtual groups, to exchange photos and recordings, and to reach other people in the far corners of the world.
Along with this great advance in digital technology, human life has become very convenient, fast and multidisciplinary, but there are also some areas where people have started to make less progress, such as PERSONALITY, INTEGRITY and SOCIALITY.
The current generation of young people, who no longer write with the grace and elegance of previous generations, are being more and more vocal about the fact that handwriting has been replaced by pressing buttons on computers. There is also a decline in literacy, as people are increasingly reading fast, choosing short messages, avoiding long texts, writing in abbreviated form, not punctuating, and what you don’t practise is quickly forgotten. It is noticeable that the modern generation makes quite a lot of spelling mistakes, and if they know the rules, they don’t bother to apply them all, because the pace of life is so fast, there is so much to do, and it is so much to do, that it seems unnecessary to add all the commas or full stops.
Another problem is the decline of sociality, of real communication. People are used to interacting on screens, through screens, in the virtual world, and there is much less real meeting and face-to-face interaction than there was 50 years ago.
Seeing these changes in society, enthusiasts of writing and communication started to create LETTER WRITING CLUBS. The very first correspondence clubs were for writing real, paper letters, sent in an envelope with stamps stamped on the envelope. The envelope itself and the stamps represent the country. Later on, virtual correspondence clubs have emerged, where people interact, talk about their hobbies, traditions and customs of their country.
There are many correspondence clubs in the world today, just type PENPAL in the google search box and you will find a whole list of websites with all the information and contacts you need.
The main difference between all the CONVERSATION WEBSITES and the MEETING CLUB WEBSITES is that the PEN-PAL CLUB is not a dating site, but a space for people who want to communicate by letter. All clubs emphasise this and warn that forms where people are looking for partners will be removed.
In correspondence clubs, people can correspond in the following ways:
- E-PAL – virtual correspondence on a closed club website;
- SNAIL MAIL – for those who want to send real paper letters to each other. On the Correspondence Club page people exchange their addresses.
- CANDY SWAP – every paper letter comes with a sweet treat.
- MAIL ART – artistic, decorated letters, with a lot of attention paid to the handwriting and decoration of the letter.
- PARCEL EXCHANGE – gifts are exchanged with a letter.
- POCKET LETTER PAL – sending tiny, pocket-sized letters.
- POSTCARD PAL – Correspondence by sending postcards – postcards with stamps and a message, without using an envelope.
- EXCHANGE HOLIDAY – correspondence to make contacts and visit each other on holiday. Participants organise a holiday for guests, present their city, country, communicate, exchange and then go on holiday to their pen pals.
And the most important advantage of these correspondence clubs is LANGUAGE LEARNING! LANGUAGE LEARNING is ongoing, and communicating by letter is one of the best ways to put your theoretical language skills into practice. Writing letters and communicating in a foreign language is a natural way to learn many new words, to compare how we communicate, and to compare how your pen-pal communicates in a foreign language. This is the best practice to reinforce your knowledge. Often those who write real letters also communicate in chat apps, send each other short audio messages or make calls via SKYPE, ZOOM, MESSENGER. English is the most popular language for email communication.
In summary, humanity has made very significant progress in perfecting its language systems and writing. There have also been and still are huge advances in industry, in the world of technology, in the digitisation of information. The current CHALLENGE for society is to manage all the advances, to bring them together, so that progress in one area does not undermine progress in another, to give examples, so that virtual communication does not replace real, live communication, the creation of a connection between people. The challenge today is to make use of technological and digital advances, but to devote time to fostering HUMANITY, SOCIALITY, LIVING, TRUE COMMUNICATION.
P.S. This article is based on 1.5 years of my personal experience in correspondence clubs. My favourite: www.globalpenfriends.com I am currently corresponding with women of a similar age from the USA, Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Finland and I recommend everyone to try this activity, which allows you to make new friends, helps you to develop your English and what a nice feeling to find letters in your mailbox from the farthest reaches of the world… Try it too!
