[USMA:29710] Re: interesting question

[James Wentworth]

I can only give you one small example of this phenomenon.  An acquaintance of mine who is from the former East Germany saw one of my sheets of A4 paper and remarked that it now "looks strange" because he is used to seeing 8.5" X 11" sheets since he has been living in the US for several years.  He was astonished at his own reaction because he grew up using and seeing A4 paper in East Germany.  --  Jason ----- Original Message ----- From: MightyChimp To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2004 10:10 AM Subject: [USMA:29705] interesting question I'm  curious to know something about the "understanding" of units world-wide.  Does anyone here have either knowledge, experience or feeling as to whether more people in metric countries understand and have a working knowledge or feel for FFU or more people in FFU-land have the same towards metric?   In other words, would an American be more likely to understand metric, or a foreigner more likely to understand FFU.    I've encountered immigrants to the US who give me funny looks if I use metric units and become resistant if I ask them to respond to me in metric.  Many claim to have forgotten metric and understand only FFU.  Some being in the US only a few years.  Yet, when they speak with others of their kind they have no problem conversing in their native language.  How could one not forget one's native language, yet forget SI.  Can anyone here relate to this?