Brief 10: Pen Pal Research

• Improves reading and writing skills - I've definitely found recently that both my reading and writing skills have improved. I've never been that good with English and this has really helped me. Also seeing how good people who aren't native speakers are at English has really made me try harder seeing as I really don't have any excuse to be bad.

• Increases confidence - I've always been slightly worried when going to other countries that I wont be able to fit in because I'm from such a different culture, but from doing Snail Mail, what I have found is quite the opposite. Everyone I have met from different countries and cultures has very similar interests and leads a fairly similar lifestyle to me. It has really helped me feel confident about travelling and possibly moving abroad in the future.

• Promotes patience - I understand that for a lot of people waiting multiple days and sometimes weeks for a letter seems crazy, but after a few letters you start to realise that the longer you wait the more valuable to letter feels. It also helps you in other situations in life. We live in a time where we expect everything when we want it and not a second later and not everything in life always works that way. Patience I think is such a valuable skill, I've also found it makes you a much calmer and less stressed person if you have patience as well.

• Improves geography, history and language skills -  Okay so for me because I'm an English native, I haven't really improved any language through Snail Mail, but that's only because I have chosen not to! Writing letters is a great way to learn a language and like they say, there is no better way to learn a language than from a native. My geography has improved greatly as well. I have had requests from countries I haven't even heard of before! I even bought a massive map of the world to see where my pen pals are from. Learning history from letters is great. By asking my pen pals about their countries I have learnt so much about how they have changed, especially some of the Asian countries. Another thing I forgot to add in the title but you learn a lot about is Politics. I have a pen pal from America who I solely write about politics to. We exchange mile long letters about each of our countries laws and values expressing our views to each other.

• Increases understanding - It makes you understand and open your eyes to other peoples cultures and values. I also think it makes you more rounded as a person. I think that it is really important for people  to understand about the world around them and I feel as if we all have an understanding with each other we can prevent any future conflicts.