16. WHERE CAN I FIND A PEN-PAL TO WRITE TO?

We get many posts asking if people would be interested in exchanging correspondence to help improve their English. We offer the following suggestions where you could find a like-minded person.

The Student E-mail Exchange site should help you find someone looking for similar friends: www.eslpartyland.com/e-mail/stemailresults.htm

Online ESL Club!
For students and teachers of English. A wealth of information is provided here where you’ll also be able to find pen-pals to write to.
http://www.englishclub.net

If you can’t find anyone from the above sites, you might want to try http://www.europa-pages.co.uk/penpal_form.html

Posting to the newsgroup soc.penpals  is also a good idea if you’re looking for someone with whom you can exchange e-mails

17. CHAT PROGRAMMES

How/where can I chat online to practice my English?

Another request which crops up on the group from time to time is how/where to take part in ‘chat’. Two of the most popular chat programs available on the Internet are mIRC and ICQ. They are easy to download and a search through the available channels should lead you to many happy hours of chatting fun on just about any subject you can name.

The mIRC homepage:
www.mirc.com
mIRC is not yet available in Italian but this URL will allow you to download the installation instructions in Italian: http://www.mirc.co.uk/translations/italian.html

ICQ , another popular chat program, can be downloaded from:
http://web.icq.com
To use ICQ in your own language, follow the steps listed on the following Web site which accesses LingoWare – a free downloadable programme to then translate ICQ into Italian http://www.lingocom.com/english/downloadicq.htm

AOL IM , the Instant Messenger by America On Line is one of the simplest messengers around:
http://www.aol.com
version 4 is integrated in the latest Netscape release. You can use AOL IM to chat with your buddies only or to join chat rooms that are listed at: http://www.aol.com/community/chat/allchats.html

PowWow , is another interesting messaging software:
http://www.powwow.com
it has several features (such as the capability to share a screen to draw on or the voice communication option), most notably the compatibility with AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Microsoft Network Messenger Service (MSNMS)

Other messengers

Yahoo messenger
http://messenger.yahoo.com

Microsoft Network Messenger
http://messenger.msn.com
MSNM is important for NetMeeting, a part of the application that allows for voice communication over the Internet. It is rumoured to be a trifle better than the one offered by PowWow.

iCaster
http://www.icast.com/icaster

Chat without messenger
Eliminating the need to have to download a chat programme, the following suggests many links which should be of help in locating others learning English who wish to chat:
http://www.esl.about.com/education/esl/msub1.htm .