Penpal from South America-2 (Argentina)

Argentina is a large country in South America. Argentina produces excellent beef (they eat grass, so they are healthier than American cattle, which usually eat corn). What else is Argentina famous for? Get a penpal from Argentina and find out!

1) Log onto the Students of the World website. Scroll down to South America (near the end).

2) Click on Argentina:

Argentina currently has almost 1000 people looking for penpals, so it should be easy to find yourself a friend.

Today, one of the top listing is Florencia. Wait a minute! It's all in Spanish!!! I can't read Spanish! No problem, Google Translate can help us.

Paste Florencia's self-introduction on the left.

Mr Google is very smart (it's so quick and efficient that it's almost frightening). "Spanish - detected" means that Mr Google immediately knows that this is in Spanish. On the right hand side, you can see Mr Google's translation (It is surprisingly accurate):

Florencia indicates that she also speaks English, so you can write to her in English:

Click on Florencia's [My Page] button to learn more about her:

Penpal from South America-1 (Brazil)

Penpals from areas where they speak English (Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and the USA) usually write good English. German speakers (Austria, Germany and Switzerland) also tend to write well in English. However, you should not only write to people who write very well in English. Be adventuresome! Try writing to people in South America, for example.

1) Go to the Students of the World website. Scroll down to South America (near the end).

2) Scroll down to South America

Most people in South America speak either Spanish or Portuguese, but many people also understand English. There are several large countries to choose from. Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela are probably not very good choices because they face many social problems (they might be unsafe). Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay can provide lots of penpals. Check them out!

3) Here are three people from Brazil.

4) Luzirene is a 38-year-old teacher. She first shows us a photo of her family and she includes a selfie on her own page (click on "My Page"). Even though she is an older person, writing to her seems like a safe choice. Of course, we don't really know her real age and her real job; maybe she's not even a woman!

自我介紹 About You

每天在 Students of the World（世界同學網站）找筆友的人不下幾百個，而且登廣告的空間有限（"250 characters" = 250個字母、標點符號、空白）所以要寫特別一點（幽默、創意等）才會引人注意.

譬如說家裡養貓可以說成：

“I have a cute black cat. At night, he likes to chase mice. This is not cute."（很正確，但有一點枯燥）

或許可以這樣寫：

“There's a monster with sharp claws under my bed。He likes to kill mice”（較有創意）

自我介紹也可以談一下的話題：

First Penpal Letter 給外國筆友的第一封信

給外國筆友的第一封信

Hello, [對方名字]!

My name is [自己的英文外號]. I am a {high school/college} student in [在哪裡就學：northern Taiwan (Taiwan is an island off the coast of China)]. I have been studying English for [多少年, 如 "four years" 最好全拼]. [寫日期，譬如：March, 2014] is the first time I have ever written penpal letters to foreigners. I am very excited.

注意：一般英漢字典對ever的解說不對，ever不是“曾經”的意思，正確的解說是：“過去、現在、未來的任何時候”【ever = at any time: past, present and future】 在這裡ever用來強調：“從來都沒有寫過這種信件”。

Penpals

Students of the World is a very good free website to help you find foreign penpals. Don't be afraid. Find a few penpals to practice English with. Here are some interesting countries to try. People in Northern Europe probably write good English, but people in other countries also have interesting things to say:

Western Europe

BEL = 3905 Belgium
DNK = 1150 Denmark
FIN = 2573 Finland
FRA = 85373 France
FRO = 14 Faroe Islands
GBR = 22190 Great Britain
GER = 4102 Germany
GIB = 18 Gibraltar
GRL = 14 Greenland
IRL = 3201 Ireland
ISL = 88 Iceland
ITA = 7364 Italy
JER = 46 Jersey & Guernsey
LIE = 3 Liechtenstein
LUX = 84 Luxembourg
MAN = 47 Isle of Man
MCO = 19 Monaco
NED = 1465 Netherlands
NOR = 556 Norway
PRT = 669 Portugal
SMR = 6 San Marino
SUI = 1097 Switzerland
SWE = 2466 Sweden
VAT = 15 Vatican

Eastern Europe

HUN = 1376 Hungary
POL = 4333 Poland
RUS = 3776 Russia

West Asia

ISR = 282 Israel

East Asia

IND = 2363 India
JAP = 2845 Japan
KOR = 65212 Korea
PHL = 939 Philippines
SGP = 855 Singapore
SRI = 5465 Sri Lanka
TAI = 5689 Taiwan
THA = 4731 Thailand

North America

ALA = 1253 Alaska (USA)
BER = 19 Bermuda
CAN = 9901 Canada
USA = 93097 USA

Africa

BFS = 12187 Burkina Faso
LSO = 15 Lesotho
SAF = 1352 South Africa

South America & Oceania

AUS = 9508 Australia
FLK = 8 Falkland Islands
GUM = 15 Guam
HAW = 749 Hawaii (USA)
NZL = 2283 New Zealand
URU = 127 Uruguay
VEN = 217 Venezuela