2003-03-15 So Carl, did you discuss with him the idea not to give in and continue to use SI when conversing with people? What good is paying lip service to SI, if the guy tries to appease the ignorant and struggles with FFU?
He should set an example by use. If someone asks him to use FFU, he can tell them he tried to understand it, but it is so hard to understand and used compared to SI. sometimes I tell people I'm lazy. I like to do things the easy way and SI is much easier then FFU. We need people to set an example by using SI and not trying to struggle with FFU just because someone insists SI can not be used in the US or whatever reason is given. John . ----- Original Message ----- From: "Carl Sorenson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, 2003-03-13 23:26 Subject: [USMA:25128] Some interesting conversations > I had some interesting conversations today. It was a beautiful, sunny day, > and my coworker, who is from Russia, mentioned how warm it is. I looked up > the weather online and it said that it was 23 degrees, by far the warmest it > has been this year. Denis, my coworker, looked at it and said, "You > understand Celsius?" I told him that I don't use Fahrenheit, and actually I > understand Celsius better now. He mentioned how he doesn't use Fahrenheit > either, and thinks Celsius is a lot easier to use. He knew that 32 was the > freezing point and 100 was very hot, but nothing else. We talked for a > little about how much simpler the whole metric system is. He mentioned how > confusing our system is, and I told him how we are converting very slowly (I > mentioned that package labels will be changing somewhat over the next few > years). > > Earlier, in my History class, we were talking about the resistance to many > of the changes that industrialization brought about. My teacher mentioned > that people tend to resist change and asked for examples from the class. I > resisted saying the obvious, since I knew someone else would bring up the > metric system. Overall the discussion was quite positive. At an > appropriate point I mentioned how quickly Australia converted. The teacher > mentioned England's slow conversion positively but accurately (as far as I > can tell). A woman from Eastern Europe expressed frustration about how > confusing our system is. > > A few months ago I talked to a girl from New Zealand who thought the metric > system is easier, and a woman from Australia who basically said she had > pretty much forgotten the old system and found a visit to the U.S. required > an adjustment. > > All of these encounters help me feel pretty confident about the future. > Most Americans I talk to are positive toward the metric system (at least in > principle), and most visitors to the country seem to firmly prefer the > modern system. There are exceptions, but overall it is encouraging. > Besides, this is probably a low point for support for conversion in the U.S. > I look forward to the time when the country gets around to discussing it > again. Until then, lets keep working on making some changes. I can't wait > to see some metric-only labels at the grocery store! > > Carl > > >
