Envelopes

25-06-23 00 / episode: 160

Script

"Envelopes.

What a cool idea.

I didn't do any research before I started talking about this.

I'm just talking about it as I think of it.

So you'll get lots of ideas and vocabulary.

But it might be a bit messed up.

I wonder where envelopes started.

They must have started with mail.

In fact, I think, I remember years ago reading about people who wrote messages to each other and had them sent first, you would write it on a paper and give it to a messenger and they would carry it.

The problem was the messenger could read it and then they decided to fold it up special and the messenger would carry it.

But if the messenger unfolded it, the recipient, the person who got the message would know the messenger or somebody else read it.

Well, they could refold it up.

That was a problem.

So then they started using wax, they would seal it with wax, they would put wax across it.

And if the seal was broken, somebody must have read it and it was no longer trusted information.

And then they went one more step, conceal the entire contents of the message by putting it inside another piece of paper that became the envelope and then the envelopes themselves could be sealed with wax and you could tell if somebody broke it open or not.

Wow.

Cool.

Huh.

Now, envelopes are used for all sorts of things.

One of the cool things I see envelopes used for every day is money in Canada.

It's a bit suspicious to put money in an envelope and give it to somebody.

It's like you're giving them something secret and it's secret for a reason.

It must be bad in Japan.

It's kind of the opposite.

Giving people cash is kind of bad and at least covering up the cash, putting some clothes on it by putting it in an envelope is polite and a little bit more formal.

So the use of envelopes varies from culture to culture.

What creative uses have you seen for envelopes?"