Do you Still Send Christmas Cards?

Mentioning the subject of world languages, my wife commented that English gets a lot of support when used as a 'lingua franca'. So I checked it out on Google and found a most interesting Wiki site which I think others will find of interest. You will find it here: Lingua franca

You will read that ELF (English as a lingua franca) when used as an international and intercultural communication tool is widely used outside of its normal 'Native-speaker' arena. I love the explanation that "ELF conversation may involve an Italian and a Dane chatting at a coffee break of an international conference held in Brussels, (or) a Spanish tourist asking a local for the way in Berlin...and similar situations"

It adds an interesting comment that ELF interactions are very often hybrid and gives examples which will I am sure amuse you as they did me. One can even put yourself in the picture as has happened to me on many occasions when trying to converse in France using French lingua franca. (Part French as recalled -often with incorrect pronunciations - and part English, switching from one to the other). Somehow it works (well most of the time anyway).

I believe the use of English within its Native Speaker areas plus widely used throughout the world as a lingua franca; being taught as a second language (particularly in China) and likewise in India (as a legacy of the British Raj) will all contribute to the English language retaining its place as one of the top three languages of the world for some considerable time to come.

 

I've been back in a while now, but I'll go out again for a couple of days if you like....and stop winking at me!

 

No I must not be too unkind, you are welcome to stay indoors, but that was not a wink, I think I had something in my eye

 

Harking back to what you said Carla, we have just received a sort of communal Christmas card from my elderly Aunt's family -my maternal first cousins of which there are 5 - and inside was a separate note -typewritten of course but signed - giving news of them all and in particularly commenting on my Aunt's fragile health. The whole family live 200 miles away in Birmingham so we see them rarely and my Aunt has been in and out of hospital all year following a bad stroke, and remains bedridden at home with the bed downstairs.

I like the closing note which says that Mom (Aunt Rita to me) wishes to have the last word but we are to excuse that she cannot write the words herself and the note says "I love you all and I am doing fine -Happy Christmas" and a handwritten big 'X' follows. My wife and I were quite moved and the card and note will have pride of place on our mantel shelf.

 

I agree Carla and Bob. Despite what I said about sending more and more e-cards, I still send a lot of regular cards - the kind without printed greetings inside - which I fill with updates on family and doings for those who care. There isn't much space so you can't write much, but probably enough. At least it keeps people up to date. A few people get proper letters, but they're very special. How do you all feel about round robins?

 

Explain please Gillian, I doubt you mean of the chain letter type and I am sure you are not speaking of the shape of Erithacus rubecula (European robin). 'Round robin' conveys to me a continuous circular form of communication similar to the ones used in large offices where each department receives a communication, responds, and passes it along and finally back to source. Or perhaps you mean an on going ping pong 'type' newsletter sent out at intervals to relatives or friends? Anyway I await to be enlightened.

 

Referring back to Bob's comments about cards for speakers of Arabic and Hindi, and thus presumably Muslims and Hindus

When a Muslim family moved in next door to my parents, my mother asked me if I thought they would be offended if she gave them a Christmas card. I said I thought it highly unlikely (they were Manchester born & bred) but maybe better avoid the Nativity scene. I was right, they did appreciate the gesture - and were quite touched when she also gave them an Eid card that I'd got for her in Abu Dhabi (I was living there - no special trip required)

 

Oh dear, that's what comes from not living in England. I get out of touch with the correct words. For example, one of my daughters said that people don't say "sitting room" in England any more. She claims it's "living room". I honestly thought round robin was the correct word for the endless copies of the same letter that people send to friends and relatives, usually at Christmas. It obviously isn't. Sorry about that, though, actually, Bob, I suspect that you knew exactly what I meant. So, please, your turn to enlighten me.

 

Ah yes, Bob. Since my little piece above I've been searching for a book sent me by one of my brothers - very English and living in England. At last I've found it. Written by Simon Hoggart the book is called: "The Cat that could open the fridge. A Curmudgeon's Guide to Christmas ROUND ROBIN Letters." The first sentence is "The advent of the home computer has made Christmas round robin letters ubiquitous. See Bob? That's exactly what I meant.

 

Thanks for your informative reply, and I sort of hit the nail on the head with my somewhat inadequate description of Ping-Pong type letters, which are Round Robins of sort but in truth I did not associate them with Christmas. I (we) trade such with at least one family friend about twice a year and now reading all about the Christmas ones, think perhaps it's time to review the matter. (I will return to that in a minute).

I have since discovered that the term Christmas round-robin letters bring forth a variety of hits with Google, and I particularly like the BBC News Magazine one entitled 'The revenge' which is a skit on how to get your own back describing RRL as 'heavily-glossed updates on high-achieving children and exotic holidays'. The revenge starts off with 'My dear Caro, Tom, Zoe, Sasha, Dotty (the dog) and Fluffy (the hamster)... so you know you are in for a treat and the ending is brilliant. Read it here Christmas RRL.

Our own Round Robins started when friends moved North after many years living relatively close by for years. One day we received a 4 paged (A4 sized) letter (typed or word processor produced) with news of all the family. So of course together (my wife and I) responded in kind and this has gone on for years. Only now they are emails and as your book says ubiquitous; but in our case just not associated with Christmas.

It has now got to the point where it takes each of us 2 to 3 months to respond to the other and I sort of think it is time to make them a yearly ritual only NOT at Christmas. In fact this posting reminds we still haven't had a reply to the one we responded to in October. What's the betting it comes just before Christmas? Never mind, we can always delay replying until May. I wouldn't mind but our families have moved on and we no longer have Dotty the dog or fluffy the hamster so what is there to say?

 

An old friend and I have just hit on the best and quickest way of remembering each other at Christmas. He's in England, I'm in Finland. We skyped each other and then held up a Christmas card to the camera so that we could each see our card while enjoying a long conversation about this and that and the other.

 

Yes I agree Skype is possibly one of the best things ever invented for the internet. I speak on average twice a week with my sister and husband in Australia -and periodically finding nephews and nieces present at the same time - and is better than any Christmas card or Round Robin. It certainly beats the phone conversations at Christmas ages past with the international operator saying 'I am putting you through caller' and the pips sounding 30 seconds into the conversation.

 

This time I'm in full agreement with you, Bob. Like you I talk regularly to relatives and friends in distant parts. How times have changed indeed. When my (Finnish) husband and I got married in England in 1962, the reception (being held in the garden) was brought to a dramatic halt when someone yelled from the house, Gillian, your brother's calling from the States. There was a mad stampede into the house to listen to this wonderful call and someone even took a photo of the event. And do you remember how one had to remember not to answer immediately but always wait for the voices to catch up with each other. I don't know the correct term for that delay.

 

This brings back memories of my first trip to USA in 1967. That was my first extended period away from my parents home, apart from university, so when my mother's birthday occurred towards the end of my 8 month work assignment I decided to wish her Happy Birthday via a phone call. Because of the time difference, I made the call at 03:30 New York time (08:30 in UK) to make sure that she would be at home. The connection was made via the operator who counted the number of tones generated as I fed a large number of quarters into the coin box to pay for the call. Every other person living in the same house woke up to witness the occasion and then we all had a party after I had finished the call. I was a little late getting in to work that day (or was it the next?).

 

Not a transatlantic operator experience but evocative of using a phone box around 1959. I was in the RAF and making a phone call from a phone box to my (then) fiancé back home in a village in Northamptonshire. She took the call in the village Bobby's house across the road from her parents as home phones were few and far between. It was by prior arrangement of course and at a given time Sunday evening.

I was paying for the call and after dialling the operator, giving the exchange and number and being told to insert money (I think it was a shilling) I was put through. We exchanged sweet nothings and recall hearing background pips, but we carried on, and on, and on until suddenly we heard the voice of the operator. She said 'will you two love birds finally say goodnight as you already exceeded your allotted time by several minutes and it will soon be time for me to knock off.' She then gave us time to finish our goodbyes.

Of course she had been listening in but that hardly mattered as I managed to get at least another bob's worth of call (appropriately named don't you think) for my money. It didn't always work of course and sometime we got a terse, "Caller kindly finish your call and hang up" but every now and again we got the nice lady operator again. It was another world of course.

 

No I don't know the actual term for the time transmission delays but I do remember the confusion when each tried to speak over the other. Until one learned to wait for the other person to respond it was quite chaotic and meanwhile the minutes ticked away and the cost escalated. If it was your own phone you just hoped that when the bill came through it wouldn't be too great a shock to the system.

Nice photo by the way.

 

That's a great story Bob, and, as you say, a different world. The truly bad thing about those transatlantic calls was folk who couldn't work out the time difference. You'd (at least, I would) be woken up at 3 am or some equally dreadful hour by a cheerful voice, which would then apologise profusely for adding hours instead of subtracting them (or the other way round). Glad you liked the photo!

 

Like my Niece (in her early 20's at the time and some years back) phoned from Australia at 5.00am in the morning. I answered half asleep thinking it was a family emergency only to be greeted by a cheerful and loud Aussie voice saying "Hi Uncle Bob, how are you today"? When I told her it was 5 in the morning she wasn't at all put out and even asked what the weather was like. I think I said something like 'Well let me see, it's mid-winter, dark, and cold and likely raining outside she cheerfully told me it was 30 something degrees over there.

I could not be angry with her and knew she had no idea of the time difference plus she was phoning to thank me for her wedding present as she was soon to be married. I couldn't make the wedding but have subsequently visited my sister and family twice since then. I did promise I would get my own back after she was married only I would make it 4.0am in the morning and told her unlike her I knew the time difference. I never made that call of course.

 

Not 5.00am in the afternoon, Bob?

 

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