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Foreign penpals

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Circa 1988 there was some kind of lottery pen pal system and, out of the blue, you would get a form to fill in which would ask you to state your interests and where you would like to have a pen pal from. I remember my slightly older friend getting her's first and being dead excited because i was going to ask for a boy and bag myself s French boyfriend when my turn came! i think i received 2 responses and the friendship fizzled out after just two letters. I'm sure this definitely happened, but cannot find any eveidence of why, when or how. My theory today was that it was some Government exercise to A) encourage international relations and B) an early ID system to keep tabs on the teenage population.

I also remember a magazine in the late 80s, which had a couple of pink pages in the middle with "personal ads" for its readers, again, in the vein of introducing penpals as well as offering a swapshop/fridays ads type service. Because it was based in the uk, you had a better chancce of finding a penpal closer to home. i thought this was a great idea, but unfortunately i think the magazine folded within a couple of issues.

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Do You Remember Foreign penpals?

Do You Remember Foreign penpals?

  • Chaobaby7
    on
    loved pen palling and still have a friend I met in 1990 from a pen pal group, same age as me.
  • Aura
    on
    I use Interpales and there are wierdo's on it who insist they want to see you on webcam.
  • sandie76
    on
    I remember my friend getting one of these forms, I always wanted one but never got one for ages. I filled mine out, but never heard anything back from them. I did get a French penpal in 1989, through my french teacher at school. His name was David and I remember his first letter smelt of the most gorgeous aftershave I'd ever smelt. He sent me a little metal eiffel tower souvenir with his next letter - which I've still got!
  • Jubblyjue
    on
    I remember filling in those forms. I began penpaling with an Australian boy named Paul Thompson, everyone thought he was hot but I didn't like him as he had blonde hair. There is a pretty good website called interpals where you can find penpals from all over the world. I've met some wicked people on there, just watch out for the weirdoes!!!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I had a French pen pal called Veronique who always wrote to me, at the age of 11 , in perfect English. I always wrote back, of course, in perfect English! Slightly ashamed that i couldnt speak/write the lingo! But i have since found on my travels, that this is always the case! We are not a very Bi-Lingual nation.Must try harder!

Do you remember these?