future mail

童亞文

Have you ever dreamed about sending a letter to yourself or your friends in the future？ While express mail is a fast way to send your letters， there is another type of mail appearing in China as a new business—future mail.

你曾經(jīng)夢(mèng)想過給將來的自己或你的朋友們寄一封信嗎？雖然快遞是為你送信的一種快捷方式，但是在中國，另一種寄件方式作為一項(xiàng)新的業(yè)務(wù)出現(xiàn)了，這就是慢遞。

“The letter should be sent next Mothers Day and not a day earlier！” Lin Xiaofan， a college student in Shanghai， tells one of the companies offering the service.

“這封信應(yīng)該在明年的母親節(jié)寄出去，一天也不能提前！”林曉帆，是上海的一名大學(xué)生，她這樣告知提供該服務(wù)的某一公司。

Lin Xiaofan wrote the letter to her mother nearly a year earlier to express her love to her mother for next Mothers Day.

這封信是林曉帆提前寫給她母親的，提前一年寫好，為了在明年的母親節(jié)表達(dá)她對(duì)母親的愛。

“Offering this service makes people slow down and lets them understand the meaning of ‘time in another way，” said Zheng Zhimin， manager at a “future mail” company. Zheng thinks “future mail” letters help remind1 us of care， friendship and love.

“這種服務(wù)使人們放慢腳步，讓他們用另一種方式理解‘時(shí)間的含義。”某個(gè)“慢遞”公司的經(jīng)理鄭志敏說。他認(rèn)為“慢遞”信有助于幫助提醒我們——關(guān)心，友誼和愛。

While “future mail” is becoming more and more popular， some people are wondering what will happen if the postal2 address changes or if the company goes broken before the letters arrive.

雖然“慢遞”正在變得越來越流行，但是有些人很擔(dān)心——如果在郵件送達(dá)之前收件人的地址更改了或者這個(gè)公司倒閉了該怎么辦。

Zheng said customers are glad to sign a contract to make sure that they can be compensated3 if their letters are lost or damaged.

鄭經(jīng)理說，客戶很高興能簽下一份合同，合同保證如果他們信件丟失或損壞，他們可以得到補(bǔ)償。

Most of the customers are college students and young whitecollar workers. Psychologists4 said that young Chinese might have a new way to express their feelings through this service. Most people put their hopes and wishes in the letter so that they can experience the connection between the past and the present when they receive the letter.

大多數(shù)的客戶都是大學(xué)生和年輕白領(lǐng)。心理學(xué)家說，年輕的中國人可以通過這項(xiàng)服務(wù)以一種新的方式來表達(dá)他們的感情。大多數(shù)人把他們的希望和愿望寄托在信中，這樣當(dāng)他們收到這封信的時(shí)候，他們就可以體驗(yàn)到過去和現(xiàn)在的聯(lián)系。