Have you ever heard of Postcrossing? I discovered www.postcrossing.com a couple of years ago and rediscovered it this year. The idea is that you send postcards to random users around the world, and then you also receive postcards from around the world. It is a lot of fun to come home and find a postcard from Russia, Taiwan or Canada on your doorstep!
Some of those postcards I’d like to s
hare here. I specifically asked for postcards which show me something of that person’s culture – a local custom, event or important person. I think this is a nice way to get to know these cultures better!
In January I received this postcard. It read: “This card shows a shrine with a long and distinguished history in Tokyo, called Ueno Toshogu. I visited there a few years ago. We have a custom to visit shrines or temples in the beginning of the New Year. And we throw money into offertory boxes to pray for happiness of the year.”
About Marian van Bakel
I graduated in International Business Communication at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. After my studies I was a Visiting Study Fellow at University of Oxford where I conducted a research on the adjustment of Dutch diplomats and their partners in London. In February 2012 I successfully defended my PhD thesis ‘In Touch with the Dutch’, in which I put expatriates in touch with a Dutch host to examine the effect of this contact on the success of the international assignment. During my PhD research I also worked as in house communication consultant at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. I am currently a postdoc at the Department of Leadership and Corporate Strategy at the University of Southern Denmark (www.sdu.dk/en). Since 2004 I have done extensive voluntary work in the intercultural field for the Young Society of Intercultural Education, Training and Research (Young SIETAR). One of my projects was to co-edit and co-author A Suitcase Full of Discoveries (2008), an intercultural storybook for children.
hare here. I specifically asked for postcards which show me something of that person’s culture – a local custom, event or important person. I think this is a nice way to get to know these cultures better!
Marian van Bakel 
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