Writing a letter to a family in Almaty

I'm going to be in Almaty this summer and I will be writing a letter in Russian to the host family with whom I will be staying.

However I don't know how I should be addressing the family (we don't yet know who the people are by name or any other information about them...just that they live in Almaty). Should I say something like "Dorogaya sem'ya", "Uvazhaemaya sem'ya"?

Just write "Здравствуйте!"

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Originally Posted by Uvula

we don't yet know who the people are by name or any other information about them...just that they live in Almaty

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Are you sure they know Russian?

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Originally Posted by Uvula

Should I say something like "Dorogaya sem'ya", "Uvazhaemaya sem'ya"?

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Imho, "Здравстуйте" is enough for the beginning.

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Are you sure they know Russian?

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If they live in Almaty then probably, at least basic Russian. I could see maybe if they lived in like Dzhezkazgan or something people not speaking Russian but I think its a pretty safe bet.

General reminder: don't try to translade English 'Dear' at the beginning of a letter directly to 'дорогой'.

You write 'дорогой' only to those who are really dear to you, don't adress it to people you hardly know. Try 'Уважаемый' instead or just 'Здравствуйте'.

Ah, yeah, my initial intention was to simply write "Zdravstvuyte", I just wanted to check that I shouldn't use something more formal like "Uvazhaemiy".

Spasibo!

And yes, I am quite sure that they know Russian, since the instructions said to write the letter in either Russian or Kazakh.