Review FriendsAbroad
Registering is very simple and quick. Choose a username, password and include as many details about yourself as you want and your profile is up and live for other users to read. You can be registered and using the site immediately. Simply search through profiles of other users based on what language you want to use. Contact the users you are interested in (and some will contact you) and begin to exchange email and using your language skills. The site is safe and secure, and you can block members with whom you are not comfortable. The setup was so simple, and I was contacted by several users within minutes as I was still browsing through the profiles. The site has a neat Hi feature. Rather than try to craft a clever email the first time you contact someone, sometimes difficult to do in a foreign language, simply click on the Hi button in their profile instead of the email button. The service automatically sends them an email that simply says 'Hi', and if they want to respond they can return the Hi or write up an email and send it back to you. If they don't want to respond they can simply leave it alone. It's an easy way to establish contact with people if you aren't sure they would be interested, and it doesn't take up anyones time. And, of course, you can always go ahead and write up an initial email if you want to. Like any other service of this type, the results are mixed. Some people don't respond, others stop using the service or put up their profile and never sign on again. Establishing contact and then maintaining a long-term correspondance with someone with similar interests and language goals is dicey at best. Overall the response has been very good. There is a casual atmosphere with FriendsAbroad and from its users and this lends itself to ease of use and successful communications. After just a few days of using FriendsAbroad I began to establish communications with people who had similar interests and goals as myself. I have been maintaining correspondance with a number of people in different countries from South America, Europe and Africa, using English, Spanish and French to varying degrees. I still have not exhausted my options searching the profiles, and I continue to be contacted fairly regularly by new people. In fact I'm having trouble keeping up with the people I've already communicated with, let alone add more! I expect to use FriendsAbroad on a regular basis as an essential item in my language learning toolbelt. Overall, FriendsAbroad is quick and simple, easy to use, and a successful vehicle for making penpals around the world to use and improve your language skills. I highly recommend it.
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