Pen pals are a special way for students to form a bond with someone they would otherwise never talk to, creating a unique learning and life experience.
Plus, it’s a fun way for students to learn about someone on the other side of the world.
Cal High students in French teacher Miranda Kershaw’s class are experiencing a unique opportunity to learn about other cultures and traditions by exchanging letters with students in France.
The Pen Pal Project involves students in Kershaw’s French 1, French 2, French 4 Honors, and AP French classes. All students are given the opportunity to write to French pen pals studying English.
Students exchange letters about four or five times during the year.
“I felt like [writing to pen pals] would be much more engaging than a random exercise they might do,” Kershaw said.
Kershaw is a member of various teacher groups on Facebook and found one that focuses on pen pals across different countries many years ago.
“I just reached out, and I found some teachers in France through this Facebook group who were interested in corresponding with my students,” Kershaw said.
She’s had her students involved with this program for about six years now. Although the teachers Kershaw has worked with over the years have changed, she has been corresponding with the same three schools: Lycée Aragon in Héricourt in northeastern France, Collège Centre in Gap in southeastern France, and Collège Marie Laurencin in Ozoir-la-Ferrière, located in the Paris suburbs.
“It’s been going really well with them,” Kershaw said. “Everybody’s consistently doing their part on their end.”
The exchange is a win-win situation. Cal students practice their French with a native speaker of the language while helping students in France with their English. It’s also a great way for students to gain cultural insight.
“[I think] it’s so fun to be able to ask a real person questions about culture and get information about their experiences and perspectives,” Kershaw said. “It provides a kind of personal connection, where they can really dig deeper into cultural similarities and differences.”
Freshman Brooke Hansen, who is currently taking French 1, said that writing the letters to her pen pal is a brand new experience and a great way to help her practice the language.
“I learned how to communicate and write better,” Hansen said.
Usually, students will have certain prompts they must use when writing to their pen pal.
Senior Lucas Chi, who is in AP French and participated in the program as a student in French 2 and Honors French 4, said a lot of the questions they ask in the letters are pretty typical ones a person would ask when interviewing someone.
Common questions include “How do you celebrate New Year’s?”, “What do you like?” and “What are your favorite parts of learning French or English?”
“[There are] some prompts that the teacher sets aside,” Chi said. “But then, we also expand a lot on our own questions, and it’s kind of a mix of the two.”
During the holiday season, students received a hard copy letter from their pen pals. Junior Aditi Mandale, who is in Honors French 4, said this year she received a decorated card from her pen pal that made the interaction special.
“It’s also nice to have something physical you can keep for the future,” Mandale said.
Some students even choose to exchange socials at the end of the year and continue communicating outside of school.
“I did [exchange socials] and we definitely did try to talk outside of school,” Chi said. “It was almost like a continuation of the letters we wrote in school.”
The Pen Pal Project is something really unique for all of Cal’s French students. What started as an idea in Kershaw’s head blossomed into the program that students love.
“You have that really unique opportunity to connect with different cultures, with understanding really immersivity the first-hand perspective of how they live in France,” Chi said. “That’s something no atlas or book or news outlet can ever teach us, because I think that direct human connection is something that’s truly special.”
