CHAT Was: Re: Accents

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...

> 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.
(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.

You could see this during the Euro changeover - In Ireland they gave
a 6-week period during which both currencies could be used. In fact,
by last weekend (the changeover began Tuesday of last week) almost
everybody was using *euros exclusively. Seems like the civil service
overestimated peoples' conservativeness on this matter. The same would
probably be true for other conversions.

* regular plural form is unattested in official literature ;) "5 euro".
I'm just waiting to hear some Dublin salt say "five euro me arse! 'Tis 5
effin' euros! Jaysus!"


> 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

Stephen Mulraney

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