Tapesponding from Japan -

The World of Voicesponding -

Friendship Via Tape Pen Pal Letters

Have you ever corresponded via TAPESPONDING? Add to your postal correspondence with tape pen pal letters! I think this might be something fun for you to try!

By Mrs Harumi Lloyd, Japan

When I was a teenager, I used to exchange letters with a number of international penpals. I found this an enjoyable and fun way of learning about the cultures, lives and simple everyday routines of people in other countries. I particularly enjoyed corresponding with my American penpals, as their comments, kindness and observations on life taught me a lot about the USA and the many people and places that can be found there.

Later, in my early twenties, some long term health problems suddenly led to my becoming completely blind. Naturally, this situation led to many changes in my life, including the (then) tough but unavoidable decision to halt my existing penpal relationships. At that point in my life, as I could no longer read or write properly, it seemed that my international correspondence days were behind me.

Time moved on and after a number of years, my: curiosity about the English language (which I had continued to study after losing my sight); passion for many types of music; and general enthusiasm for learning more about the lives and cultures of people outside Japan; all combined to get the better of me! As a result, I decided to try to start corresponding again but this time with one big difference: the medium I chose to use was not the written word but the spoken word…the voice-letter.

So how do voice-letters work, I imagine you are thinking? Well, when I want to compose a letter to a voice-friend, I simply use a standard cassette-recorder (or cassette-radio player) with a microphone facility. I record my voice onto the kind of inexpensive, standard audio cassette-tapes (C-10's/C-60's/etc) that you can pick up in most electrical shops or general stores. When I have finished, I check the sound quality of the recorded letter and then send it off to one of my voice-friends. Then, when they've listened to it, they record over my voice and send their voice-letter back to me and so on.

As a sighted person, you may be wondering whether voicesponding (as I like to call it!) is something that you might enjoy doing. You may also be worried about the potential cost of sending cassette-tapes by mail. Let me quickly address these points for you:

For a sighted person to voicespond with another sighted friend, the costs of exchanging tapes are, naturally, a little higher than for conventional written letters. However, for a sighted person who wishes to correspond with a blind voice-friend (and vice versa), the postage costs can be zero. This latter situation (nationally and internationally) exists because audio material recorded on cassette-tapes, for the exclusive use of a blind person(s) can be sent as 'Free Matter For The Blind', in special reusable-mailers (which I use a lot).

At first, you may feel a little awkward or shy when speaking onto tape for a potential new voice-friend. However, this feeling soon goes away. In return for your effort, you get to enjoy the actual voice of your friend (often from many thousands of kilometers away), telling you all about their news, views and so on. In some of my voice-friends' cases, I've gotten to hear: their cats popping in to "meow" on tape (!); their children saying "hi"; the birds in their gardens singing; music that they've taped for me; and other incidental happenings in their everyday lives. Also, the differences in my pals' accents, speech patterns and so on, really make the 'international' aspect of our friendship, shine through brightly.

Generally, I like to think that voice-friends are like old-time radio DJ's. They enjoy the challenge of sitting down and putting together tape-letters ('broadcasts'!) that are always interesting, varied and fun to listen to. They also like to hear back from their friends in a similar vein. Voicesponding can be a really great way of building new friendships, irrespective of whether you're blind/visually impaired or a sighted person.

If you are female, 35+ and think that you might like to try voicesponding, then I would be really pleased to welcome you as a potential new voice-friend. I am currently looking for new voice-friends, particularly from Canada and the USA. I love: voicesponding; music; walking; cooking; etc. and I would really love to hear from you (literally!). All tape-letters received will be replied to, so why not give it a try!!