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Re: Cultural stereotyping and internationalization
Subject:Re: Cultural stereotyping and internationalization From:Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM> Date:Sun, 17 Aug 1997 18:22:53 -0700
Bruce Byfield wrote:
>
> Feeling about these things differ strongly from country to country.
> In Canada, references to zip codes and states offend a good number of
> people. Possibly, the reason for this feeling is that we're the mouse
> next to the restless elephant.
>
> At any rate, I suspect that the reason that many American companies have
> started usign [sic] State/Province and Zip/Postal Code in documents is that
> Canada is usually considered part of the North American market, and
> manufacturers don't want to risk annoying a large part of the market.
I doubt it has much to do with "offending" or "annoying" any particular
small part of a market. It probably has much more to do with simply
trying to get mail or other material through that country's postal
system and delivery mechanism. Putting an address in the form in which
it is most likely to be correctly delivered is simply an exercise in
cost-effectiveness, not cultural correctness.
Elna Tymes
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