Addressing Controversies

I really have no time for the universally accepted addressing system.

The Western system goes from small to big. It names the individual first, then the house number, estate, street name, city name, and finally the country. It's a matter of habit of course, it has logic of sorts, although a pretty good illustration of how the navel-gazing western mind proudly sees the world. 

Each of us cares about the number one, but the world is around us, and it is a big world, so you need to find somebody, you have to start on the outside and work towards that point. In our traditional system, shared by most Asian countries, we move from big to small: postal code, country, city, street, estate, building number, then - finally - the individual’s name.

That is, we used to do so.  It makes sense, right? But currently what with all the changes and attempts to westernize Russia, our post service adopted what they believe is the Western addressing system, resulting in a chaos on envelopes. I feel sorry for the not too bright girls who carry mail. There certainly haven't been any manuals about how you are to address your letters when you mail them, and it’s a miracle that mail is still regularly delivered, and small wonder that the parcel my son sent to me last spring got lost.

Occasionally, I still receive letters by snail mail, such as from the tax authority or other agencies, or some advertising shit, and the address part of the envelope is all screwed up. Examples:

Рахмановский пер., 3, г. Москва, ГСП-4, 127994 (street, house, city, district, postal code)

Трехпрудный пер., 9, стр. 2, офис 313  Москва, 123001 (street, estate, building, office, city, postal code)

Try on an alien culture, and you look like a redneck wearing a suit and necktie – confused and ridiculous.