CARDS IN BRITAIN

Do people send cards to each other in your country?

Look at the list below and discuss with a partner whether you would send a card on the following occasions :

• Christmas and New Year
• When somebody passes a test/exam
• When a baby is born
• Birthdays
• Mother's Day
• Valentine's Day
• To say : 'Thank you' to somebody
• Wedding anniversaries
• When somebody is ill in hospital
• Easter
• ……….
• ……….
• ……….

British send cards in many occasions. The tradition comes from Victorian times when rich families began to send Christmas greetings to their friends. Cards became rapidly commercialised and there are cards for every occasion : from buying a new house to having a new job and even when getting a divorce !

Sending cards is a way of keeping in touch with a person you do not know well enough or a person you do not see very often. People like to decorate their houses at Christmas with cards. They either hang them on the wall or they are often displayed on a table to enable everybody to see them and read them.

Cards in many ways have taken over from the letter. If you do not have time to write a letter, you can send a little card !

 

 

ACTIVITY

Now it's your turn :

You are going to send an electronic card to a friend. As it's St. Valentine's Day, you are going to send a Valentine's Card.

You can use any of the addresses below or you can use a search engine (www.google.com, for example). Type 'free e-cards' and try.

www.123greetings.com
www.bluemountain.com (some are NOT free)
www.free-e-cards.co
www.regards.com
www.e-cards.com
www.alighthouse.com

If you have got enough time, you can send an e-card to your personal mailbox and see what you get.

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