When I studied English at Nijmegen University in 1973-1975 we were told that we
had to use Centigrade instead of Celsius in English. How times have changed.
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Naughtin
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Saturday, 2010, April 10 8:04
Subject: [USMA:47093] Re: Aussie km speak
On 2010/04/10, at 13:37 , Harry Wyeth wrote:
Not really important, but the PM of Australia was on US TV the other day,
distinctly saying that that Chinese coal freighter which ran aground on the
Great Barrier Reef was "fifteen kilOMeters" off course". Is this the
prevailing Aussie way of saying it? And is it OK to call you folks Aussies
(apologies if not!)?
HARRY WYETH
Dear Harry,
The Prime Minister of Australia is somewhat an exception when it comes to his
use of the metric system. Other than his mispronunciation of the word kilometre
he returned from the Climate Change talks in Copenhagen earlier this year
explaining to us about 'two degrees centigrade'. I was stunned at that time
that, not only, our PM had not yet heard of degrees Celsius but that none of
his advisors apparently had either!
The expression 'Aussies' is quite common here to refer to ourselves.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain from
http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped
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