PENPALS *UPDATED*

[Ripi]

Well not too long ago, I saw a post here asking about penpal sites and thought to myself: Hm... having a penpal would be really cool! So I did a little searching... and ended up going to sites where A) You needed to pay, B) The intent of the site was strictly for personal ads, or C) The site seemed to be poorly ran/ had very few people on. Even the suggestion of going to the Embassy of Japan it seemed to me that they added links to the first few sites that offered free penpals, without really researching the sites (maybe I'm just too picky?) So, I remember there being a penpal program availible on a site I went to a few months ago for a progect on the Kamakura period (Minomoto no Yoritomo kicks a** BTW.) And lo and behold: there are litterally HUNDREDS of people looking for penpals/ friends from various countries around the world! Try it for yourself:

Worldwide Penpal Search

I tried it last week and I currently have about 4 penpals. Oh, and if anyone could suggest some other good sites, it would be great.

EDIT: I went to my language exchange.com and checked it out. They offer voice and text chat (if you're willing to download software), as well as penpals. They also have lesson plans (to help break the ice and to offer topics for conversation) and they have this cool in-chat companion that has a dictionary, allows you to save words to review for later, and much more. This site might not look like much, but I give it a 9/10!

My Language Exchange  

[Saru no Saru]

ありがとう！　
heart  

[MalfoyKoibito]

That's totally awesome. heart
I might check it out, .. but then again, I'm not even good at writing in my journal on a regular basis, so I might not be a very good penpal. sweatdrop hehe  

[Ripi]

愛  

[Neko`Sarine]

that's a great site. thank you so much.  

[moookau]

Wow, that's a really nice site! ^.^

Thanks for the referal! I've been trying to find a Japanese penpal for so long... noone trusts eachother nowadays. @__@  

[akirakurosawa111]

oh gosh thats so cool!!! LOL BUTTT!! i have always wondered what relay are penpals? @_@ i rember when i brother was little he had a penp[al i think in hchina he talked to all the time is it used ofr learning things form a diffrent person? like cultures, traditons and such?  

[l p a n d a e y e s l]

0.0
i think i just found my old friend from when i lived in japan.
i hope its her!!!
>.<  

[hieiandkurama]

I went to a site called "Glory Be" that is SPECIFICLY for Japanese to American Penpals.
Through that site about 8 Japanese people e-mailed me wanted to become e-friends/pen friends. I talk to all of them still.

One is a very good friend now. We send everything from magazines to jewelry and Japanese items. She is a very good friend. I also practice my Japanese with her smile We also send e-mails to each other everyday and also swap photos!

Goolge that site to find it because I dont know the URL!

I also used to use mylanguageexchange and I didn't like it all that much.  

[Akira_Hoshino]

akirakurosawa111

oh gosh thats so cool!!! LOL BUTTT!! i have always wondered what relay are penpals? @_@ i rember when i brother was little he had a penp[al i think in hchina he talked to all the time is it used ofr learning things form a diffrent person? like cultures, traditons and such?

Pen pals are exactly what their name is... pen pals. Although internet friends are more often called "e-pals," email pals. They are friends from all over the world that you write to. You can talk to them about whatever. They're just like friends.

But a word of advice to everyone - though the two sites posted are legit, if you simply Google "Japanese pen pals" or whatever you'll get a bunch of sites that are actually dating sites. They don't look like it at first glance, or it might look like there are options for just finding friends. But they are always full of older people looking for dates, and they will spam the heck out of your email. When my naive self signed up on a couple of these sites back in junior high, I started getting sketchy emails in both English and Japanese. I am still getting a handful of them and it pisses me off. So just be careful where you share your information.  

[che_hyun]

Ah, I've always wanted a penpal. Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.  

[Kakure Basho]

Totally awesome links. I'm definitely going to check them out. biggrin  

[l p a n d a e y e s l]

in a fair warning.
old 26 and 37 year old guys try to talk to you >.<  

[Ripi]

Akira_Hoshino

Pen pals are exactly what their name is... pen pals. Although internet friends are more often called "e-pals," email pals. They are friends from all over the world that you write to. You can talk to them about whatever. They're just like friends.

But a word of advice to everyone - though the two sites posted are legit, if you simply Google "Japanese pen pals" or whatever you'll get a bunch of sites that are actually dating sites. They don't look like it at first glance, or it might look like there are options for just finding friends. But they are always full of older people looking for dates, and they will spam the heck out of your email. When my naive self signed up on a couple of these sites back in junior high, I started getting sketchy emails in both English and Japanese. I am still getting a handful of them and it pisses me off. So just be careful where you share your information.

Scarred_With_Sin

in a fair warning.
old 26 and 37 year old guys try to talk to you >.<

Those are excellent points guys. If I put something on here, then I've used it and I like it (i might even put some sites that I don't like on here just because you might like them) But if you go and google/ask jeeves/ whatever, you'll come across sites that are really dating sites. If you do it that way, surf the site before you sign up or you mightl get loads of spam from dirty old men (lol, Sorry Akira_Hoshino).  

[m i n . i . m a l]

http://glorybe.boo.jp/

^ This is the website someone referred to earlier as "glory be" which has very nice listings for penpals (LEGIT penpals and not just romance!)