Reviving the lost art of letter writing
A visit to the General Post Office in Central rekindled interest in the lost art of letter writing for a group of primary school students.
Thirty eight Primary Four to Six students from Pui Tak Canossian Primary School got a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into how the post office works.
Students were given a tour around the huge office and were shown the various machines used for sorting letters and parcels by Bobby Chan Chi-man, induction officer of Hongkong Post.
With digital correspondence replacing pen and paper as the most common form of communication, Mr Chan said that it was a pity that people had lost interest in writing letters in the e-mail age.
He hoped that the visit to the post office would encourage young people to begin writing letters and using its services.
Witnessing the meticulous work of post office workers sorting through tonnes of letters and packages, Primary Six student Lee Hoi-yin said the visit reminded her of the warm feeling of writing a letter to her loved ones.
'I mailed a letter to my grandma who lives in Wah Fu Estate today. She has had some health problems recently, so I wrote to her reminding her to take things easy.
'Next time, I am going to write to my other grandmother who lives in Causeway Bay,' says Hoi-yin.
Wong Wing-yi, who is also in Primary Six, shared Hoi-yin's enthusiasm for writing letters after the visit.
'I communicate with my friends mostly via e-mails. However, writing letters is more personal since my friends can see my handwriting and I can draw pictures on the paper. I will continue sending hand-written Christmas cards to my friends. The actions of penning greetings, sealing the envelopes, buying stamps and mailing the cards at the post office are all part of the fun,' says Wing-yi.
Besides rekindling their interest in writing letters, the visit also gave the students the opportunity to learn more about the inner workings of mail delivery.
'The visit was really interesting. I saw the letter sorting and video coding machines. I also learned that there are many letters that can't be read by machines and have to be handled by humans every day. Working in front of computer screens, they can handle more than 1,000 letters an hour,' says Hoi-yin.
