If they are no fluent in English, they surely understand others are not either, right? So in that case: is it useful to pretend what the sender writes means the worst possible thing?
Here we are communicating internationally from different language and cultural backgrounds. If the attitude is to see that mentioned sentence as a violent sentence, maybe it’s good to think could they change their own attitude?
The sender sent the card, and as a bonus helped the non English profiler see the part of the rules they missed. Not bad things.
I feel so sad when people request certain types of cards, and I only have one they don’t like on hand. I am new to Postcrossing, and very excited about the writing and connecting part, but it always makes me feel a little disowned and unappreciated when I can’t fulfill these requests, and that takes some of the fun out of it… All I can think about is someone receiving the card I’ve put care and attention into & being immediately disappointed.
I always wonder why people comment on these kind of things instead of writing about something else in the postcards?
Now, don’t get me wrong. I know most people come from a good place and they want genuinely to help. But wouldn’t it be better if they just contacted the admins and then they would contact the person to help or reminded them? It’s not like we are the postcrossing police and, from my perspective, it’s a waste of postcard to write it.
(This is my perspective only and in no way I’m judging anyone who does it out of the goodness of their hearts. It’s just that for me is something that I don’t really understand).
I have to agree with you that it’s easy to jump to conclusions in any case since we all think so differently. However, in my opinion, @Saouri is right when saying that this kind of things can discourage especially new members. Once again, I believe it would be better if people would contact the postcrossing team instead of policing others profile.
English is my first language but there is so much to learn in terms of etiquette, rules and guidelines lines that I got overwhelmed and that’s without all the really useful information the forum provides.
I got an advice from admins I can mention about it myself. So, why not. And because most likely that’s all I will write.
Why most often I don’t write anything else, because if they don’t understand worst case I write something personal and they put it somewhere to have someone translate it
I normally write something like: “in order to others understand your profile better, please consider adding English translation”. That’s nicely written.
Still I get rude and arrogant responses. Some people don’t know how to take an advice.
So, to me seems the problem is not that someone mentions what language their profile should be, or how they mention it, but that someone’s don’t read the rules and don’t respond nicely when they are normally told that the profile should be in English.
In this case, to me, it would be weird if the card receiver would be discouraged about this.
If they don’t know English well, wouldn’t they first think they are misunderstanding? And if not, where does this certainty come that they are right, even when they know they don’t understand that language. What happens in their head? Is that not almost comical
But if they are discouraged, then they will soon find something else if not this. They are hard to please
Of course I hope they are not taking this as seriously as it appears here, and maybe even the card text is wrongly written here.
And I hope the sender isn’t reading this and be discouraged to continue, when they just tried to help a newbie.
(Ok, now looking my long message it might appear to me this is huge mistake if they don’t follow the rules and I “must interfere”.
No, to me it’s just small rule breaking and so easily fixable, that even I can mention it, like to a friend.
(And like I wrote either here or in similar thread, I have nothing against other languages , and I always try to understand the non English one, and then see the English version ))
Politeness is kind of cultural thing… I recall when I went to Czech Republic (little town out of the way) that people barely used “please” or “thank you”, which for a Spanish is nowhere near politeness. There were Olympic games that year and the TV on the local pub was almost always showing canoeing. However, whenever we went there, the owner would change the telly to show a Nadal match or any other sport with important Spanish representation even though we never asked him to. And, of course, he would go back to canoeing at the same moment when we stepped out of the place.
I think that was lovely, very attentive and far more welcoming and polite than our “pleases” and “thank yous”. And I cannot imagine many Spanish bartenders doing such a thing, by the way.
So when I have perceived a message as rude, I’ve tried to rationalize it and peel off the rudeness from it, as there always is a possibility of cultural misunderstanding.
This is true! In Canada I am saying please and thank you continually, including to my husband at the dinner table if he passes the salt I’m not being formal or excessively polite, it is just how we are. He does it too.
But when I was 15 years old, I went to Mexico City to stay with a Mexican family in a student exchange. I was at breakfast with them one day, and had just said “Gracias” for about the fifth or sixth time when I noticed this somewhat… annoyed… expression on the mother’s face as she replied, “De nada.” And that’s when I realized that it wasn’t necessary to thank people continually in that context, and indeed I was being a little irritating by obligating her to say the equivalent of “you’re welcome” over and over again. My culturally appropriate (in Canada) verbal tic wasn’t appropriate to this casual family meal.
It’s not a matter of people being polite or impolite, it’s just that the customs or traditions around requesting or showing gratitude vary from country to country and culture to culture. There’s a linguist named Lynne Murphy who’s made a very entertaining study of this specifically in American English vs. British English.
Anyway, not really on topic, except perhaps to say that what sounds abrupt to one person may sound just fine to someone from another culture, and what sounds polite to one person may sound painfully exaggerated and even sarcastic to someone from another culture. So it doesn’t hurt to give one another the benefit of the doubt.
This is so easy to pick up on, too. I was watching the Canadian curlers at the Olympics, and they where constantly thanking each other for saying things like ‘good shot’, where most others would probably just move on as it’s something said all the time between team mates!
@PatriciaOH something similar what happened to you in CZ, happens to me when i get into Ubers in the United States. The drivers often ask to verify your name and they ask me are you Enrique and I say yes and they start the ride and sometimes the driver will change the music on the radio to reggaeton like Bad Bunny, J Balvin, Rauw Alejandro or something artist like that. They change it on their own and I kinda chuckle inside. I don’t say anything. I let them just drive, but all the while Im laughing inside. They probably think because Im Spanish I must like this type of music. I could take it or leave it. I just think its really funny. Most the drivers are foreign so I think they do it to be “polite” and try to make me comfortable to what they think i like to listen to. In all honestly, while Im in Uber rides, I zone out and concentrate on reading Forum posts. Lol.
If you don’t know it’s something you must do in every occassion, you don’t.
And even if you do, you can forget.
(My point simplified was:
Person A does something “wrong”
Person B tells what they should do (and it’s easy).
to me that would be over and done with.
But no, appears person C and writes about it in the forum, where no one really knows what the person B wrote in reality, and why. Instead people see this person B doing something wrong. Does the poor people B even know they are written about?)
We don’t have a lot of choices either where I live. There are not even tourist views available. But there’s a solution to everything. I’ve made my own tourist cards with photographs of a semi-professional (and his consent) on smartphoto.com which also specialises in sturdy cards. I have ordered a lot of postcard boxes online (Amazon, eBay, Abebooks, …) and even bought some second hand and can now nearly always fulfill a wish. You have very specific boxes (Star Wars, Harry Potter, …) but also ones you can use for general topics (The New Yorker, It’s Cool, National Parks, …). And even though around 20$ may seem expensive, it’s actually quite cheap if you know you have 50-100 cards for that price. And who knows, maybe you come across a box you like so much, you’d want to collect all the cards yourself. In that case, join Postcard Box/Set Request Tag or to get more (and with some follow-up) Postcard Set RR. To find out about some amazing postcard boxes (and believe me, there are many more), I suggest a peek here Postcard Box Directory. I hope this has helped you find more postcards.
worst case I write something personal and they put it somewhere to have someone translate it 
, and I always try to understand the non English one, and then see the English version ))
I’m not being formal or excessively polite, it is just how we are. He does it too.
