Am I missing something here?

Hi.
I am kind of new to pen palling stuff but I seem to be having some problems. The thing is that, i dont wanna sound like i am craving for attention or something lol cuz i am not, but no one seems to be responding to my emails. Idk maybe i am missing something here in terms of culturally, or maybe idk how to pen pal... but this is a general pattern of my experience so far on this site:
a) i email someone responding to an ad and i get no reply (happened like 20 times)
b)someone responds to me... i send another email and then bam no response an example of that kind of email:
Hello ace !

Thanks for your E-mail. I think we will seems to get along well ! because we like and major history. What kind of do you major histoy? I will study the Amelican history on 3rd grade in the university.

Wao!! I like Utada too! her song is very nice. My favorite her song is "First love"that is a her 1st music album.
then I will introduce my self . My name is Aya,18years old, high school 3rd grade student. My little dream is do a lot of trips, and it is to fill a passport with many stamps. The thing which I am afraid of is dogs. My favorite food is a Chainese food and a sweets and more.

thanks for reading. so long.

This is her response. However after i replied, she just stops replying. I also have like 3 of these cases.
Idk what is wrong here, any help would be appreciated. thanks
if someone wants to email me also regarding this problem feel free to do so at acebingo2006@gmail.com
thanks for your help guys
=)

Hi Ace,
don't give up. Just keep on trying. This also happened to me at the beginning. Maybe the persons you have contacted until now, can't speak so much english or are curious but not really interested in having a palfriend.

Ace sounds like the butterfly effect. This forum asks for questions and receives responces. Often it goes no furthur than that. Also slang and english metafore are confusing when trying to comprehend thoughts. Let alone computer symbology. My advice, try and keep it simple and slow down a little and make a true connection based on honest principals that others can understand in a simplified mannor. Butterflys go quickly to other flowers. Especially when confused.

I concur with the simplifying the language. I always explain any foreign concept and phrases just to make sure my penpals don't get confused. Luckily no confusion has happened.
With me, no comments back when I respond to their ads, but I get many responses to my ad. weird. 0_0
What does your ad say? Just to see if their maybe some reason for them being this way.

Ace, I don't know how long you've been waiting for those responses, but you have to keep in mind that for most of those people, writing a page worth of English e-mail is like doing an assignment from school.

A lot of them ask for translation help on the internet, and if not, they need a lot of time looking up dictionaries and grammar books figuring out what you're saying and then writing what they want to say.

As mentioned, try to use basic school-book English. Try to make your sentences short, and be sure you put a period at the end of each sentence. Try to put in a question or two, but not too many, so that they'll be motivated to write back.

Most of all, try to think that you'd be a lot luckier to have a penpal who gives you one Christmas message per year for three decades instead of someone who writes you every week for just a few months.

i totally forgot about the language barrier part lol

You definitely need to be writing in standard English- if you aren't already, make sure you leave out the "lol, cuz, idk" stuff- that is hard enough to understand for a native speaker who is not used to it, let alone someone who is learning English. Later if you want you can explain things like "lol" to your penpal- they may find it interesting.

Make short, clear sentences with proper punctuation. Capital letters at the beginning of sentences, commas, capitalising "I" etc. See if that helps.

It could be that they no longer hold interest in having a penpal. When I put up my add and replied to others, this slowly ended up being the case.

I go into phases where I hop between hobbies. One day my nose is burried in Japanese language books and the next, my eyes are buring from playing too much of my favorite MMO (online video game). Even working on home improvement stuff.

Sometimes I read the penpal's email, but don't have time to reply. I tell myself I'll get to it later, and eventually forget all about it.

So maybe they just forgot or lost interest, as humans tend to do with some things.

Ace,

Besides the language barrier, there is also the issue of time.

Some people are so busy that they have little time. Combine this with looking up words, etc, and you suddenly find them gone.

Try sending a short follow up to your last email after a week or two. Give them a chance to see that you are interested and sometimes they gear up and you have a new friend.

Tenshi

To add to this discussion, do you guys think it is a good idea to write long emails when you respond? I really like conversing and try to talk about many interesting things. I am wondering whether this simply makes it more work for them when they try to respond. I have noticed a slower response from Japanese friends lately.

Glitch, I write real long emails whether it's in English or Japanese, but I try my best to write about the SAME amount as the other party. Because some like it long, others like it short, and yes, definitely I've lost penpals after writing a long response in a language that is not their native tongue.

Btw, my best penpals are those who write long but not frequently. Interesting issues that don't bother your life is best.