Anke (aka MacKittens) hails from Germany and like her username says, she loves cats! She heard about Postcrossing on one of Schöning Verlag’s paperbags and has been with us ever since! :)
Here is what she had to say to our interview questions:
- How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?
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I have always enjoyed buying and writing postcards. I like pretty pictures. Then I saw an ad for postcrossing on a paperbag for postcards, liked the idea and I immediately signed up. I then checked my e-mail account every 5 minutes for a Hurray message. I was so impatient! I am much more relaxed now. I only check my account every 10 minutes.
Writing postcards is also tradition in my family. I think my father writes about 10 postcards per week to family and friends and my mother sends greeting cards with beautiful pictures she took herself. I sometimes use her pictures on my postcards – professionally printed of course.
I work as a teacher at a vocational school – so I enjoy being around people. I like to get in contact with them. Now with Postcrossing I have the chance to get to know people from all over the world. I love it. It’s fantastic.
- Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!
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This picture shows my postwoman. She is THE BEST! My street is the very last on her trip so I get my post very late in the afternoon. But if I happen to meet her earlier that day she often tells me excitedly that I am going to receive some wonderful postcards. She likes it best when I receive postcards with cats. Just like me she is a cat-person. And if she has the time she even reads the message on the back. I like that. It is nice that even other people enjoy my postcards.
- Have you met any other members in real life?
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I have been to five postcrossing meetings here in Germany so far. The very first meeting was in Hamburg in August 2013 where I met frisendeern, mondkind and schlafmohn. We have been such good friends ever since and try to meet at least twice a month. I cannot imagine a life without them now!
Last year, they persuaded me to come to the International Postcrossing Meeting in Bielefeld in organized by the most wonderful nordbaer. I was so scared at first but I quickly felt welcomed by everyone. As I said: postcrossers are kind people! Now I am addicted to meetings.
- Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.
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Postcrossers are such kind people! I am often overwhelmed by the effort the sender made to please me. Just one example: In my profile I wrote that I am a huge fan of Ryan Gosling and I have received so many handmade cards with pictures of him! Thank you!!!
But to be honest: every postcard I receive is special. It is so interesting to read about the sender’s life. Rosie sent a postcard with the Prince Edward Island on it telling me that she was on holiday there – her first holiday in three years! Her job in a musical company kept her so busy. Sanna from Finland tells me that in autumn you can see many moose on the roads which can be quite dangerous; Angela from Taiwan writes about her sausage dogs who likes hugs – especially in winter; Katalonia from Finland writes that her oldest children have just moved out and she thinks it is exciting but on the other hand she also feels sad; Bonnie from China tells me that pandas are their national animals and they always look fat, and love to sleep all the time except when they eat bamboo; Maria from Russia admits that she just sat down at her desk to do some work but instead writes a postcard to me; Evy’s favorite movie is Amélie; and Judith from China is excited because it is her very first postcards she sends with Postcrossing – and these are just a few examples of the many wonderful cards I have received so far. I really liked this one from Lydia, who agreed to let me share it with you:
- Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing or start collections of their own?
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I inspired my mother-in-law to join postcrossing. Now, whenever I come across a postcard with camels it goes directly to her address. She is even planning to do an English course when she retires so that she can write longer messages.
I also created a school account. Now I tell my students about postcrossing and have them write postcards. First, they usually look very skeptic. Writing is not really their “thing”. But then I show them the postcards we have received so far and let my students read them out loud. They soon enjoy the idea of Postcrossing and want to write at least one postcard. I encourage them not to write in German/English but in their mother tongue which makes them so proud! We have got a lot of foreign students. The postcards we receive at school I exhibit and there are always students standing in front of the pinboard during the break and reading the messages.
- Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?
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I once received a postcard from Madagascar! The ID was MG-118. My lowest ID ever! Kate sent the postcard and told me that Madagascar is the fourth poorest country in the world and that she runs a charity there for poor children to go to school. Surprisingly the postcard took only 13 days to arrive!
- What are you passionate about?
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I am passionate about my job. I like working as a teacher! My students are 16 – 25 years old. I prefer working with older students :-) At school I organize work placements abroad. They are funded by the EU so the students don’t have to pay anything. So far we have sent students to Birmingham, Portsmouth and Malta. But I just made a contract with a lovely lady from Tampere and another lovely man from Stockholm! So soon we will also offer wonderful Finland and Sweden as work placement destinations, as well as Poland because my father works there a lot and knows a lot of companies there.
I love organizing this! I believe in the importance of a united Europe. Getting our countries closer together is so important! Learning about foreign culture and language is fundamental for a better understanding.
And I am always so impressed by the language skills in foreign countries! In Scandinavia the people speak such fantastic English. When I compare that to my students I feel rather embarrassed. A huge barrier in Germany for improving one’s English is that ALL foreign movies or TV series are in German. I hate that so much! On German TV all the TV channels are in German. I know from other countries that they only use subtitles. That is such a huge mistake we make here. I wished there would be at least one channel on TV using only German subtitles… Sometimes I am impressed by the language skills of some students and when I ask them how they have learned such good English they tell me: Online role playing games :-)
59 comments so far
Thank you for sharing the informations....
Really lovely pictures and great answers! :) I laughed about Lydia's postcard and hope you receive many more with stories like this!
I love this spotlight, thanks for sharing!
wonderful to read! :-)
happy postcrossing!
i am so happy to know you :)
lovely spottlight :) :)
I enjoyed reading this spotlight, thanks!
How nice to read, that the paperbags brought you to postcrossing.
Lovely interview with a lovely lady...
beautiful spotlight, thanks for sharing, Anke
Such an interesting spotlight, thanks for sharing!
Great spotlight. Hope to meet you in Bielefeld again.
Anke my Dear, you are the best! Kiss!
But my name is friesendeern, not frisendeern ;)
very detailed and very interesting interview with an avid postcrosser!
love it!
A very lovely spotlight, indeed! :]
Is it wonderful to "meet" you!
So great to meet another kitten!!!
:-)
Very interesting, another postcrosser lover!
Best interview ever!
The pictures are great and the teaching stories too. I would like to do that, but I teach French, so...
The postcard of Lydia is great!
Nice! I'm looking forward to meet you in Bielefeld again.
wonderful to read, I am very impressed.
I love your improvement from 5 minutes to 10 minutes... :-)))
Thanks for sharing! I loved the card of Lydia, such a good idea! :D
I wonder about one thing: on the students account, if you let them write not in English or German, but in their mother tongue, the receiver may not be able to understand. Do you add a translation?
Wonderful. Waiting for Bielefeld.
these spotlights and especially this one are the icing on the postcrossing cake!
miau meow miau
purr purr purr purr purr purr purr purr
I enjoyed this interview very much!
Great!
I agree, this is one of the best!!
GOODNIGHT GREETINGS OUT TO THE WORLD...
Nice to see you here - intersting spotlight :)
Guess I will see you in Bielefeld!
Your story is inspiring! Thank you.
I really enjoyed your story and your passionate attitude to life and to Postcrossing - Thank you.
Hi Anke, I enjoyed reading your spotlight, and I hope my card will be on the school board one day! Best wishes and hugs from Indonesia. Umm... no photos of your cat? ;)
great interview ! and wonderful to know other true cat lovers around the world :)
Such a wonderful story and - I laughed and laughed at the story of your mother-in-law!!!! OMGosh what a wonderful idea.
Cheers,
Great story. I laughed out loud of Lydia's postcard :)Great that you work on a vocational school, I studied on something like that in Leipzig! (I am from the Netherlands)
There is a good reason people are poor and will remain poor.If there are concerned readers who want to stop world poverty let me know.
Great Spotlight! Anke, you sound like a very good teacher. And Lydia, what a funny message you shared with Anke (and the rest of us, too)... I have felt a bit redundant in my messages, but you have given me the courage to share a bit more of myself.
Hi Anke, I LOVED reading your Spotlight! And I couldn't agree more about the poor English skills of German students....Unfortunantely making our fellow Germans understand that movies with subtitles are the better choice, is impossible... ;-)
Thank you for this Anke!!!
I couldn't agree more with you.
We do not have a TV connection, and one of the reasons is the lack of English Programms.
I bought a DVD player instead, and when the Harry Potter hype started I made my two kids watch the films in English!!!
Then we discovered postcrossing and I was amazed that my 9 yr old son soon wrote a few lines in proper English all by himself. My 15 yr old daughter has quite a big vocabulary now - we watch loads of English films, especially classical ones.
Postcrossing then helped them understand, why I insisted on the English films. They realized that they can connect with people in nearly every country just knowing this language.
And they realized other people write to them long messages even though their English isn't perfect either. It made them less afraid to communicate even when unsure of the right words. That is so important.
Anke: keep up the good work (we will meet in Bielefeld!!)
That was a really great Spotlight interview.
Chrissy
you're so lovely and inspirational your students are lucky ducks. Stay Swell
I loved reading your story Anke! What a great card about that mother in law, laughed so hard LOL. Hope we will meet some day on Postcrossing! Thanks for sharing your story!
Greetings from The Netherlands.
Kelly
I really enjoyed your story, Anke, and laughed out loud at the mother-in-law card. Lydia, you have my sympathies!
Love the interview. And a shout out to the postwoman! Wish you so many more nice postcards.
Nice story ! :)
It was great to read your story - I can feel your positive attitude towards the world, cheerful personality and enthusiasm! It's catching :) I love how you gave us a digest of messages you have received :) Stories that people share are the best part of Postcrossing to me.
And I can see a postcard from Poland on the school board (the one with the folk motive of colourful flowers) =).
I enjoyed reading your interview!!! I'm very happy to see my postcard from Thessaloniki, Greece on your school board!!!
proposal for the next spotlight: Lydia from Belarus...
:-D
I'm too lazy to read it, but I liked photos very much))
Don't be angry with me))
Ganz tolle Geschichte!
Oh, I loves most what you said about Europe! And trying to get placement for your students in foreign countries. That's wonderful!
Jutta
Very nice and funny interview!
Wow, you seem to be a very passionate person. Love what you do with your students. Keep it up!
Thanx for sharing the wonderful story! :)
I am so happy to know you, you are an unbelievable kind person *hugs*
I love the mother-in-law postcard, it's hilarious!
I couldn't agree more with Schlafmohn... ;-)
what a wonderful post!
oh, what a surprise, mackittens in the spotlight!!!!! great to read, so funny and interesting!!! and so great pics!!!! and you are presenting yourself on a *gabbeh*, famous traditional carpet from IR!!!? even there is a film with the same name, if you are interested in, you should try to watch it!!!!
better on a gabbeh than on a polar bear fur... :-)
Loved reading this spotlight. Thumbs up Anke. Hope to see you soon. Hugs!
I found out about Postcrossing from a Facebook group about languages and language learning, as I love languages. Someone had received a card with a sample of a language on it and wanted to check their understanding of what was written. I think a few others joined Postcrossing because of that Facebook post as well :-) It's great practice when I received or get to write one in a language I'm learning and I get to see samples of other languages too. I also like hearing about different countries and cultures. I have had one sent postcard registered and five are travelling. I can't wait for them all to arrive so I can receive some in return :-) I love this site - thanks so much :-D
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