Re: [NTLK] [OT] Exact Measurement of King Henry

On Sun, May 4, 2008 at 7:19 PM, Colin Keigher <colin@afreak.ca> wrote:
> Add on top of that, Canada only became metric in the 1970s.
>
> Many babyboomers and those who were born before the "metricsization"
> still use the standard system because of what they were taught in
> school. I was raised with the metric system in mind while I do almost
> everything with metric, I still weigh myself in pounds (but can convert
> to kilograms) and measure my height with feet and inches (although I
> know what I am in metres).

Being an American, living in Europe (for the past 10 years), I think
I've adapted pretty well to the metric system, but I never convert.
It's hard to explain, but I just think in both simultaneously. For
length, I look at something, and can guess pretty closely in either
measurement (though, for some things, like measuring wood or items I'm
building, I prefer imperial, due to its mixed measurements, and
others, like paper, I prefer metric--generally, smaller items, I
prefer metric, and larger, imperial--but go much larger, and I don't
care--yards, meters, miles--it's all the same to me). Also, temps I
don't bother converting, but can pretty much tell. But here's
something weird. If you tell me the temp is 5 degrees Celcius, I
immediately connect, but if you say it's 30 C, I don't. However, tell
me it's 85 F, I connect... I suspect this is due to the fact that I
lived 13 years in P'cola, Florida, where such warm temps are
meaningful (30 and up), and 11 years here in Poland, where colder
temps are more "meaningful." In between--say, 15-25, I can go either
way. For me, I "adapted" by taking the same attitude to metric as I
did to learning Polish--I don't translate. I learned Polish as Polish,
in context, and never tried to translate between languages. It's
worked for me. ;-)

-- 
 -Jon Glass
Krakow, Poland
<jonglass@usa.net>
"I don't believe in philosophies. I believe in fundamentals." --Jack Nicklaus
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