Re: CHAT Was: Re: Accents

On Wed, 9 Jan 2002, Stephen Mulraney wrote:

> On Wed, 9 Jan 2002 14:02:16 +1100
> Tristan Alexander McLeay <anstouh@...> wrote:
>
> > > beer, do you? g:) ) while younger people use a mix, but oddly
> > > always quoting a person's height in feet and inches...
> >
> > Why is it that other countries have so much trouble converting? (Okay,
> > people will give people's heights in feet and inches in Oz, but that's the
> > only thing left, really.)
>
> That's strange. Why are people so conservative when it come to height?
> What about weight? Maybe it's 'personal properties' that are preserved
> in this way. (Continental) Europeans of course reckon height in metres
> and weight in kilos - but then at least in France this was imposed
> during the Revolution, I think. Which is a bit different...
Nup, wouldn't have the foggiest what a pound or a stone was before the
discussion here came up. I know I weigh seventy something-low kilos, and
I'm 166ish centimetres tall (but don't know in imperial). I think the
conservativism is just because oldies were more familiar with imperial and
so when you asked your parents how tall you are, they gave it in imperial.
This, of course, is likely to change eventually. Rulers, until fairly
recently, had a disused side, but now they're either 30 cm/300 mm or 40
cm/400 mm ones (rather than 30 cm/12 in; I've never seen a 40 cm ruler
with imperial measurements).

> > I've heard tell that the Dutch use pfund(?) for
> > half a kilo... Apparently, we converted our *speed signs* over with no in
> > betweens... straight from mi/h to km/h
>
> Wow - impressive. Actually I've no idea what's used here... don't drive.
I don't drive either. I'm only seventeen (you can get your learner's
permit at sixteen, but that doesn't count as driving really... you can get
your licence at eighteen)

> (You'd have to be ill to want to drive in Dublin - but then many people
> are...). But you ask above 'Why is it other countries has so much
> trouble converting?'. I don't really think there would be any trouble
> introducing a new system of unit, but I think the inertia lies in being
> unwilling to take this step, rather than in having actual difficulties
> dealing with the units.
Try telling them to convert and they have no other choice. They'll have to
get used to it when they go shopping and children will learn it at school.
And really, who has any idea how much something weighs? You might as well
not know how much something weighs in kilograms and be able to convert
that to what volume it would take up if you converted it to water, keeping
the mass constant and having half a kilo of feathers and half a kilo of
gold weighing the same...

> > netto/<equiv. in fluid ounzes> net... (Why is it that Australians have to
> > understand the Italian/Spanish word for `net'?)
>
> ha ha ;). One of the more minor linguistic advantages of living here is
> the abundance of things like this: http://www.zompist.com/kinder.gif
Which brings me to another question... when they have fake measurements ;)
on stuff exported from Europe, who's fake measurements do they use?

Tristan