How does mail addressed in English (or any other western language for that matter) get delivered in Asian countries? My girlfriend lives in Korea and receives mail addressed in English, are there translators that work at the post office? Also, what about addresses writtin in Arabic - that’s got to be confusing…
English is studied in most, if not all Asian countries. Of course that doesn’t mean everyone speaks it, necessarily, but they are familiar enough with the alphabet that they can read their own language transliterated into the Roman alphabet.
In other words, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Japanese person who couldn’t read such “English” words as “Tokyo,” “Osaka,” and “Sapporo.” If you transliterate the address correctly, there shouldn’t be any problems with it arriving at the right place in one peice.
Usually, there isn’t any English in an address - just roman characters. I’m fairly sure being able them is required to work in pretty much any post office, anywhere.
Anyway, though non-address information found on the envelope is sometimes written in English, the official international postal language is French. That’s why you’ll see par avion written on air-mail letters.
Asians are constantly exposed to the English alphabet in the form of company and product names. Even Asian companies often use English brand names or write their names in English (Toyota, Panasonic, etc) so we all know how to read the alphabet.
Postcodes might have something to do with it.
Postcodes might help a bit, but I have received letters and packages here that had addresses so screwed up that I was amazed to have received them at all!
I’m talking about wrong postal codes, mispelled University name, COMPLETELY wrong neighborhood address and number… all on the same package! How did this package get to me? My best guess is that the main Seoul post office was able to puzzle out the university name, and sent it on to the post office on campus. The campus post office is aware that there are a number of foreigers working at the university (and are uniquely aware of me, as they have seen me mailing out boxes of garbage, and pondered the reasons for it [try explaining SDMB White Elephant exchange in broken Korean sometime, I dare ya!]). Most of the foreigners here work for the same department, so they took a chance and sent it there (correctly, as it turned out), and the department recognized my name and got it to our office. Voy-La!, as the French are reputed to say.
But for correctly addressed letters and packages, virtually all Asians can read English well enough to puzzle out an address if the address is a Romanized version of the local lingo. If one word, or one line is confusing, there are sufficient other clues to ensure that the parcel gets to the correct destination (usually, that is… I’m sure there are mistakes occasionally…).
For example, part of my address reads (in English) this way:[sup]NB[/sup]
Astroboy14
C/O PEEC Office
Hanyang University
#17 Haengdang-Dong, Seongdong-Ku
Seoul
Now, this letter will get to Seoul, no problem… from there, if Haengdang-Dong (Haengdang Neighborhood) or Seongdong-Ku (Seoungdong District) or BOTH are mangled, a postal worker will at least recognize “Hanyang University” and say “Ah HA! Haengdang-Dong, in Seongdong-Ku!” and the letter will get here.
If the word “Hanyang” in Hanyang University is mangled, they will be able to puzzle out the Haengdang-Dong, Seongdong-Ku part, and then ask themselves “What university is in Haendang-Dong?” and the letter will get here.
[sup]NB[/sup]Not my complete address, but I bet a letter mailed this way would get to me, if my correct name were used!
If all of the above fails, I suppose they could contact the immigration office here in Seoul and inquire regarding my name… but I don’t know if they would actually go so far. They might just chuck my letter in the undeliverable bin at that point.
Oh, and regarding addresses written in Arabic:
I have witnessed on several occasions Koreans sending letters overseas… in all cases the addresses have been written in English. I would bet that letters written from Arabic speaking countries to non-Arabic speaking destinations are also written in English (which is, after all, the main international language for business and trade of all sorts…
It’s all been regulated by the Universal Postal Union (Makes you wonder what makes them Universal, and not merely international… Maybe there’s some truth to Men in Black?)
(The following comes from Their website)
Anyway, the Article RE 204, §3.3, of the UPU Letter Post Regulations, clearly defines the rules governing the character sets to be used in international addresses:
In the end they summarize:
[quote]
In conclusion, we would therefore recommend that:[ul]
[li]you write addresses in roman letters and Arabic numerals; if other letters and numerals are used in the destination country, the address should also be written using these letters and numerals;[/li][li]you comply with the recommendations of the postal authority of the country in which you post your items as regards indication of the destination country;[/li][li]you follow the recommendations of the destination country’s postal authority for the remainder of the address;[/li][li]you always write the name of the destination country in one of the languages used in the country in which you post your items; if this language is not an internationally known language, you should add the name of the destination country in an internationally known language.[/ul][/li][/quote]
Oops, maybe a little bit more quotes than strictly necessary, but I don’t think the UPU would mind if their guidelines were more well-known.