Pen Friendship!

How do you know them?

Who sent you this?

How do you get so many gifts?

I am frequently bombarded by these questions by most of my friends and cousins when they happen to see my pictures on the social networking websites. So today I decided to clarify their doubts and give them some knowledge about How? Why? What? 🙂

Few years ago, one day when my Mom was cleaning out her closet, I happened to come across a big bunch of postcards, greeting cards, some photographs and letters. With curious gestures I enquired why was she having so many postcards and greeting cards. I wondered why would any of her friends give her so many cards and that’s when she told me all about having pen friends. Until then I was unaware such a thing even existed.

It has been more than 5 years now that I have some very good pen friends from different countries and I know them so well that they mean more than the friends that I have here. But it is so strange that even now many of us do not know what pen friends are.

To explain this Wikipedia describes it as ” A relationship often used to practice reading and writing in a foreign language, to improve literacy, to learn more about the countries & lifestyles and to make friendship.”

So basically pen friends are just people from different countries who might or might not be of same age group, would have similar interests and hobbies and they seek friends from other part of the world.You can select the age, gender, countries etc while making friends. You can also choose to make friends on the preferences whether they like writing emails or letters. This is the easiest and the best way of knowing other countries, religions, festivals, people,etc. Some might be your friends throughout while some might stop writing all of sudden. Some might turn up to be best friends while some might even start loving you. You never know you might also end up getting married to one of them. So if you love making friends you will love making pen friends too.

Here are some FAQ’s you need to know when making Pen friends –

* How do I make pen friends?

Well, there are numerous web sites available to make pen friends and you can choose to make Pen friends from any of those. But just remember you need to have a lot of patience since making pen friends isn’t that quick.

* What do I write?

You can write almost anything. Your day to day life, your interests, your hobbies, your likes, dislikes anything. It will be the same how you would talk to any of your friends but the only difference would be instead of talking you have to write it down.

* How would I know if we they would write regularly or not?

Most of the people prefer big e mails or letters since they like to know about your life just like any of your friends. They like to know about how people stay in your country, your festivals, your customs, etc. But some of them just like to write small e mails. You have to be patient and invest your time in writing big letters in order to make good and lasting friendship. Small E mails are no fun trust me! Once you start writing you would know that.

* Will they send me gifts and postcards frequently? 

Some people love to send postcards whenever they are visiting a new place. Even I do the same and as do my pen pals. It is a symbol of remembrance. To receive a postcard you should also send some post cards in return since even they like to see the places of our countries. In order to receive gifts and greeting cards make sure you send some to them too on their birthdays, friendship days, festivals, etc. Remember it is always a give and take relationship.

* How can I meet them?

It is really not necessary that you can meet your pen friends. Some can travel and hence visit your country someday or may be someday you can visit them too. It all depends on their interests and their financial background.

These are some of the basic questions that I am always asked. Just remember pen friends are like any of the friends that you might be having. They need your time, they need to know about you, your country, your interest, etc. Hence this requires a lot of emailing or sending letters. If you do not write frequently there are possibilities that they would lose interest and stop writing. Another thing to keep in mind is you have to be patient since some of them do not reply for days or weeks. If you feel you haven’t heard for them for long just put a gentle reminder. That should help.

If you have any more questions regarding this please feel free to comment below. 🙂