Hi! This is a confession I hate to make... I am dyslexic... really... sometimes I can't read even the clearest of handwriting and trust that I am interpreting important specifics like an address. Don't get me wrong, I love getting hand written letters. I enjoy the ink and the different styles of handwriting, it is part of the fun, and for the most part I do fine when reading the body of a letter, it is just making sure that the address is correct that worries me...
At this moment I have a letter ready to mail out to Hanna in Sweden, but I can't make out some of the important parts of the address... I am so sorry, but Hannah, if you are reading this blog post would you please e-mail me at elle.mental@yahoo.com and give me your return address? I loved your letter and want to make sure that my return letter actually reaches you, I don't trust my ability to interpret the address.
Well, while I am at it, I guess I will just make this a request from anyone who writes me a letter for the first time... Due to my challenges with reading and deciphering handwriting, if you would please print, type or use a address label for your return address I would really appreciate it. I want to make sure that you receive my responses to the lovely mail you all send me. Thanks so much for your understanding! See you in the mail!!
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I truly understand this request. I am on postcrossing and would send a thank you postcard to everyone who has sent me one, if they would only have a printed return address lable on the card. Most of the postcards I get do not have have a return address of any kind, but I do get some that have it hand written. It's often small and usually has some kind of postal smudge or marks added after it's sent. So, even if I could read it, I can't by the time it gets to me. It makes me sad.
ReplyDeleteGetting a letter with the same sort of problems might just make me cry!
Good luck. I hope this post helps and you get lots of clear return addresses in the future. :)
Sharon
Thanks Sharon! Yes, return addys on postcards are often a problem... especially on Postcrossings. I think with a lot of Postcrossing postcards it is because they only intend to mail to someone one time, not cultivate a pen friendship. Or at least that is the impression I got.
ReplyDeleteIn several situations recently, I have gotten wonderful letters from people and because of my issues with reading stylized or cursive writing due to dyslexia, I haven't been able to decipher the return address. Especially for an overseas address where things are not quite as intuitive, it is hard to know if I have it right. I think in the case of my most recent situation with my penfriend from Sweden, I will cut her return address off the envelope she sent and attach it to the one I am sending. I am hoping that a postal worker in Sweden will read the address and know exactly where it goes! I will hope so anyway! See you in the mail! Elle
Very good idea! Hope it works for you. Fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteSharon
Luckily I'm not that dyslectic, I do turn letters around sometimes, but when I read slowly I'm usually ok (this is why I don't read as much as I would like to because it takes up so much time)
ReplyDeleteBut I also have trouble with foreign addresses & names sometimes (ever seen a Welsh address haha I think people without dyslexia would have trouble with those ;) Took me a few times to get it right last time I send a letter)
I also have gotten worse in reading other peoples handwriting trough the years, I blame computers for that, I get to be behind one during my work days and when I get home I'm on my home one ;)
But yes address labels are always good :)
Much of my reading trouble has to do with things that aren't intuitive... The word "chase" for instance has five letters and starts with a ch, even if the letters don't appear as they should I can recognize the number of letters, lean on the context of the sentence and be pretty sure I know what the word is. Reading out loud really helps me to make sense of things too. For the most part I am pretty good at coping and seldom find a reading situation that slows me down anymore, but letters and numbers mixed and foreign words and context are hard. I hesitated to even bring up the whole subject up, it is kind of embarrassing to say "I can't read an address"... but it is really important to me to respond to every letter I receive and it pains me to think that someone might not get a return letter from me since I didn't interpret the address correctly.
ReplyDeleteFor me writing letters is a blessing, I love it, it makes me happy and grateful for the ability to do so. It takes time though, since I write what I want to say on scrap paper first, then I read it out loud, make corrections and recopy to the paper I will send it out on. Word processing would be oh-so-much easier, since it is faster, you can correct without having to mark out and there is spell check... but I need to keep exercising the ability to write or I will lose it. Not to mention that I really love the feel of a pen gliding across good paper... :)It just feels right.
One thing I don't think I will ever learn to overcome is those wretched verification codes for proving you are a real person not a "bot". They are impossible, I have needed to post something and not been able to get it posted since I couldn't make out the verification letters even with the help of the "handicap" which isn't helpful at all. Oh well, if that is all I have to complain about I can consider myself fortunate!