PENPAL Part 3: Penpal Websites

As far as what websites to use to find penpals here is my advice:

~ I tried a couple different ones, but in the end I used Japan Guide. Although, this is mostly for Japanese penpals, you can find penpals from other nationalities too. 

http://www.japan-guide.com/local/

Other sites I tried to use, weren't as safe, resulted in spam mail,etc..

Sorry that I don't know of any other sites. :(

But, here are some ideas for finding one: 

~ Try and use one that lets you make a profile and exchange emails through the website, before actually giving the person your actual email. 

~ Generally, stay away from ones that say things like "meet other singles" or "Pretty Girls profiles" or anything fishy. Sometimes these websites are divided into different sections : areas for regular penpals and areas for romance, and that's fine. But try to avoid them if you can. 

Look for ones that say "language exchange" or  "Friends" or just "penpals"

~ Instead of reading other peoples profiles and messaging them, make your own, and wait for people to message you. I got penpals both ways, but it seemed that the second way worked better. Why? A lot of people don't write enough in their profile. Sometimes they had bad english, so that was part of it. But, if your write own you can get more information from the other person right away. 

For example I wrote my age, favorite hobbies (LOTS of them!), what I'm looking for in another penpal (learn Japanese, email very frequently 2-3 times per week, send gifts, etc..), and finally I asked them to reply with what their favorite hobbies are, age, and a few other things. 

This way, if they didn't reply with a nice long email, with lots of information, then chances are, they wouldn't be the greatest penpal, and I wouldn't feel guilty about not replying back. (in comparison to if I reply to someone else's post and then decide after they reply back that I don't want to)

~ Lastly, you can try Christian Penpal sites, or if you are 17 or younger there are usually some "Children safe" sites. 

Hum... That's all I can think of for now. Hope this helps!