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This does look like a program that can really do a lot of good!
One of America's greatest problems has always been our endemic sense of superiority, in conjunction with an isolationist streak. We don't know other peoples, their values and cultures, and have the attitude that we don't need to know: that they are the ones who ought to be learning from us, rather than the other way around.
And I have to say this about Oprah: she puts her money where her mouth is!
posted by
Ciel
on May 30, 2008 at 8:40 AM
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I agree completely with what Ciel says. I have been able to sustain some of
my penpals. And some of them have turned into real relationships
posted by
Straightforward
on May 30, 2008 at 8:37 AM
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This was always a good idea,
and I had several penpals around the world when I was a kid, but none of them quite reached the level of being real relationships. We were all even more removed from each other than folk who meet and communicate online. I think it was the time factor, compared to the relative immediacy of internet contact, but it was also because there was no mentoring of the communication process which I, as a child, needed, to have an idea how and what to say, and to encourage the process.
Once, in high school, the fellow from Tunisia wrote declaring undying love to me, very romantic, ridiculous stuff, and I took it to my French teacher to be sure of what it said, then to my school counselor to decide how to respond. Luckily I had those resources, and used them--it was a very uncomfortable, awkward situation, and if I hadn't had anyone older and wiser to go to, what was actually trivial could have blown up in my mind into great and awful proportions. As it was, I felt a lot of anxiety and guilt about it, for a variety of reasons any adolescent might have!
The potential for rewarding communications and actually valued relationships is great, and pen-pals really can contribute to a ground-swell of honest, human comprehension, despite the antics of world 'leaders' playing badly with each other.
posted by
Ciel
on May 30, 2008 at 8:32 AM
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