Pierre, The word "my" is the same in both English and Afrikaans.
I was brought up using the imperial system. I only started using the metric system when I was 12, and then it was only in the science and maths classes. After I left school, South Africa went over to the metric system. As a result I can calculate equally well in both, just that it takes longer using imperial units because the imperial system is so long-winded and like you, I convert to metric if I am doing any calculations. -----Original Message----- From: USMA <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Pierre Abbat Sent: 07 August 2021 09:09 To: [email protected] Subject: [USMA 1790] Re: An article in the Wall Street Journal discusses America's metrication On Saturday, August 7, 2021 3:43:28 AM EDT [email protected] wrote: > I regard myself as being “bilingual” in terms of units of measurement > in that I can work equally well in either imperial or metric units and > I can flip between the two. In my view, unless you have that sort of > competence in both systems of units, you cannot describe yourself as being” > bilingual”. Finally, when I was at school, I was taught “Ek moenie my > languages mix nie”, which, in the case of the US, I would rewrite as > „No debo mix mis languages”. Is "my" English or Afrikaans? My pen is in my hand! Can you *calculate* equally well in imperial? I can't, unless it's dimensionally simple like a geometry problem where the only non-dimensionless unit is the foot. I once fell asleep in a class while the prof was explaining, in pounds and cubic feet, how to calculate the percentage of moisture in a soil sample. I woke up and did the problems by converting everything to metric and calculating in metric. Pierre -- Don't buy a French car in Holland. It may be a citroen. _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected] https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected] https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
