Что такое посткроссинг? Как начать общение со сверстниками из других стран.

Postcrossing. How to write your first postcard to a stranger.It is easy to understand why we should learn foreign languages – every day I witness a situation, when I catch an English word in a sentence or on television, or come across on internet pages. Nowadays it is not even a choice – you have to know English, but in practice it is only this kind of 1-minute situation, when it can be used. Travelling and living abroad experience is everything that I always have on my mind while learning new words and idioms. But the next day these new pieces of knowledge disappear completely from that exact part of the brain, where all new words should be waiting their time to be shown to the big great world. They have never been used, thus the learning process has stopped.
-3810254000Postcard can be easily sent everywhere – just write down five lines on it, label with stamps, and it’s ready. Easy process and the cheap one. After first five-six postcards, where I have just put some plain words about myself, I realized that it is not as easy as I thought. The way you write on a postcard is totally different from usual letters. Shortage of space and impossibility to have a real conversation with an addressee made me think about what I can say to a stranger in just three-four sentences? Not much, of course, it is meaningless to start writing an essay, as we were taught at school. Just “Hi! My name is ***” – who wants to receive that pointless message from me? If it were me, who has received such a sad postcard, I would be disappointed a lot. Maybe if the image on the postcard was great, it’d be less disappointing, but is still worse, than a great picture and a great message on the other side of it.
Since I’ve received my first postcard (which was from Holland, with a football logo and some lines written in Dutch), I’ve met different types of messages. Of course, my brain-dictionary was filled-up with new, sometimes very authentic or obscure words, but I also understand the main principle of writing a postcard. It may sound rather simple, but you should write one sentence about yourself, introduce yourself, as if you meet a new person in real life. Then you should mention the country you are from - mostly people who participate in postcrossing are curious about other cultures, and cards provide information that they cannot find in the regular guidebooks or pamphlets.
21539201206500After that usual start you can understand, that there is not much space left (don’t forget to leave some free space for the address, or it will be back to your mailbox). Now it is the moment, when you should put something special and personalized to your message – to make the person, who will read your card on the route from the mailbox to the apartment door smile. Something about you, how you spend your day, or pleasant wishes for the receiver – it is up to you. I usually draw something little on the corner of a postcard – it makes every postcard special, as if you have sent it to a good friend. By the way, I really think we are all just friends, who live in different countries and all we need is to get in touch from time to time.