French pen pals
By Hannah Stephens
Have you ever wanted to talk to people in different countries but needed to learn how to? This year, Madame Wright's French class has decided to write to penpals again. While completely voluntary, the students jumped at the chance to talk to people halfway across the world. Students in the past would usually write to their European counterparts in French, while the international students wrote to their American friends in English. Writing to pen pals is a great way to learn a language and get in touch with a different countries’ cultures.
Writing to schools in France is nothing new to Madame Wright’s students, though.
The teacher reveals, “We started with our first sister school in 2005 writing back and forth on paper… two weeks later they would receive it; they would write us back. It started very simply, then [we] kinda built on that; emails were sent or [a] social media kinda thing.”
Photo of letters from Pixnio.com
Our school has even influenced other schools in France to write to Owasso High School.
Madame Wright cheerfully explains, “[Now] we’re doing this through a former Owasso student who is now a student teacher in France. So she is trying to organize it with her school that she’s at for two years. This isn’t our sister school that we recently talked about, but hopefully, we can pick up with them too!”
The students in the program are allowed to talk to each other about whatever they want. The main goal is for each school to connect with each other while also improving their linguistic skills.
A student in Madame Wright’s French class, Caroline Draper, comments, “My pen pal and I, we talked about school, family, holidays and whatever we are doing at the moment. She’s two years older than me.”
Draper believes that writing to a pen pal is a great opportunity because “it helps learn about other cultures, and it’s cool to have another friend who just lives a completely different life and just, you know, kinda learn about all the stuff she does.”
Some students can also choose to have the same pen pal that they have had previously or they can write with a completely new person. Students can even choose to keep writing to their friends over the summer. A new school to write to provides the students with wonderful opportunities to meet even more new people.
While Madame Wright’s students are still waiting to get their pen pals, they are excited about their new upcoming friendships with people halfway across the globe. By writing to these schools, Madame Wright’s students learn that despite the distance and cultures, we can all make new and great friends.