Two letters from two new penpals. I got to know them on Facebook. We love the same boy band so we started penpalling :) I've said I wouldn't swap as much as last year and I've even stopped writing with a couple of pals due to the increased postage(also most of the pals I dropped didn't write me frequently plus I didn't feel any kind of 'click' with them and the letters felt really one-sided- me being the more active and interested party. So I'd have dropped them sooner or later anyway (*T▽T*) )
I couldn't help but start to write with these two girls, cuz I don't have any friends who share the love for my fave group with me!
First letter from my new Korean pal. I sent her quite a long first letter, so I was disappointed to get back only one paged letter. She didn't really tell me anything about herself and she mainly replied my questions and that's it. Her English is pretty good though, so I doubt language barrier is the problem with her..
From my new Hong Kongese penpal. She is over a decade older than me, but it didn't stop us from writing with each other! I sent her a long first letter and I was so very surprisingly pleased to get a long reply from her! Although the age gap between us is quite big, we have a lot in common and she's very nice :)
How much does the age difference matter to you with your penpals? Do you only seek people who are around the same age as you, or would you care less about the other party's age? When I was younger(15-16) I only wanted to write with people the same age as me(14-18yrs old) But as years have passed, I noticed the age doesn't matter at all. If we have things in common and we 'click' why care about something so minor like age? Only thing I am a little wary sometimes is much younger people than me, though. Often a lot younger person is still in a very different stage of life than me, so it would be hard to understand each other. Plus younger people's English might not be as advanced yet. Ability to communicate well in English is very important to me what comes to penpals. I know my English is not perfect either but at least I can express myself and my feelings comfortably and that's the most important thing. To go back to the original topic; I have two significantly older pals than me, one being the new pal from Hong Kong and the other is a Japanese woman- she's a house wife!
My pals are from 18 to 53 and I couldn't care less about the age. Just as long as we have something in common and can talk about life. I usually enjoy letters from people who are a lot older than I am but the problem is that most of the time they have their own age restrictions so "no people younger than 25/30/35" etc.. It's sad but if it's meant to be, you will find people to write with :)
ReplyDeleteSo far my closest and dearest pals are year or two younger than me but there are a couple new older pals whom I feel really close to already :)
My two favorite pen pals are both quite younger than me. One is about 10 years younger and the other one is almost 20 years younger.
ReplyDeleteI have the same experience as you; when I was younger, I used to search for pen pals that would have been +/- 4 years of my age, but as the years passed, I didn't find the age that important anymore. But, well, I don't think I would start to write with someone who's remarkably younger that me - it's exactly what you wrote about; that the situations in one's life vary so much when a person is very young that there might be a gap between us, a gap that couldn't be left aside.
ReplyDeleteA funny thing I've also noticed; I enjoy writing in German at the most, and feel that my closest pals are German. It's the language I'm most comfortable with, even though I love expressing myself in English, too. But when writing with a native German speaker, the risk of big misunderstandings is a lot tinier that with someone I'm writing in English, which isn't the mother tongue of either of us.
Anyway, I love writing and getting to know new people. :)