Why do Americans want to know the month first and the day second?
-
What's your birthday? When saying it, do you start with the year?
I am pro-ISO 8601 but I see how MMDDYYYY could be tempting to Murca
The Chinese do.
-
Perhaps the most relevant of all: time of day. 9:30. Hours first, then minutes. I'm not from a location that does month-day ordering, but I think largest to smallest works excellently for time measurement, hence ISO 8601.
I'm surprised I didn't even think of that. It's so obvious!
-
sauce?
some studies on keyboard layout have suggested that, for a skilled typist, layout is largely irrelevant – even randomized and alphabetical keyboards allow for similar typing speeds to QWERTY and Dvorak keyboards – and that switching costs always outweigh the benefits of further training with a keyboard layout a person has already learned
Here's just one, and there are many. What you cited above doesn't contradict what I said either...my point is it wasn't created to intentionally slow typing down
-
Because the month tells me more about how far in the future something is. If I have an appointment on the 12th of July, there's not much information in knowing it's on the 12th. 12th of what? But it's in July, so between 1 and 2 months in the future. If I need more info, then I'll pay attention to the day. So in order of information given.
Historical dates are similar, except I really just need (roughly) the year, and then a month if that's relevant. Knowing the exact date of a historical event is just showing off. But if you know the month, you know what season it was, what the weather was probably like. Was it planting/growing/harvest time? You can guess at a lot of things with just the month.
Perhaps because where I live there are no seasons in the same way as in the United States, knowing the month doesn't matter to us unless we work in the fields, here there are only months of sun and months of rain.
-
Isn't this also why September is not the 7th month, and October is not the 8th month?
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Yeh. They stuffed em in random places each time I'm sure it made sense at the time
-
Why do you use 60 seconds in a minute and not an even 100? Why use randomly sized calendar months?
Because 60 evenly divides into halves, thirds, fifths, sixths, etc, and because it's impossible to divide 365.2425 days into 12 months of equal length.
I'm a fan of 12 months of 30 with a 5 day new years in between
-
I'm sorry but it doesn't make sense TO ME. Based on what I was taught, regardless of the month, I think what matters first is to know what day of the month you are in, if at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of said month. After you know that, you can find out the month to know where you are in the year.
What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?
EDIT: To avoid misunderstandings:
- I am NOT making fun OF ANYONE.
- I am NOT negatively judging ANYTHING.
- I am totally open to being corrected and LEARN.
- This post is out of pure and honest CURIOSITY.
So PLEASE, don't take it the wrong way.
Why do you care? There are so many other cultural differences to highlight, history and music and art that only exist overseas, hundreds of millions of people with the same dreams and ambitions you have. Why on earth would you focus on something so trivial?
-
I'm sorry but it doesn't make sense TO ME. Based on what I was taught, regardless of the month, I think what matters first is to know what day of the month you are in, if at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of said month. After you know that, you can find out the month to know where you are in the year.
What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?
EDIT: To avoid misunderstandings:
- I am NOT making fun OF ANYONE.
- I am NOT negatively judging ANYTHING.
- I am totally open to being corrected and LEARN.
- This post is out of pure and honest CURIOSITY.
So PLEASE, don't take it the wrong way.
Many computer systems store dates starting with the year. Isn't that interesting?
-
I'm sorry but it doesn't make sense TO ME. Based on what I was taught, regardless of the month, I think what matters first is to know what day of the month you are in, if at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of said month. After you know that, you can find out the month to know where you are in the year.
What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?
EDIT: To avoid misunderstandings:
- I am NOT making fun OF ANYONE.
- I am NOT negatively judging ANYTHING.
- I am totally open to being corrected and LEARN.
- This post is out of pure and honest CURIOSITY.
So PLEASE, don't take it the wrong way.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Linguistics
In UK English, it's considered proper to write "the 6th of March" as "6 March" and sometimes read as "6th March" which can be jarring to Americans as their shorthand is "March 6th" and when "6(th) March" is encountered in written form, it's expanded to the full "6th of March" when spoken
That doesn't mean this won't be yet another feature American English absorbs from UK English but right now flipping them in speech requires a few extra syllables and people are lazy
-
Why do you care? There are so many other cultural differences to highlight, history and music and art that only exist overseas, hundreds of millions of people with the same dreams and ambitions you have. Why on earth would you focus on something so trivial?
... Curiosity? Some interesting things are hidden in the most trivial information.
-
Linguistics
In UK English, it's considered proper to write "the 6th of March" as "6 March" and sometimes read as "6th March" which can be jarring to Americans as their shorthand is "March 6th" and when "6(th) March" is encountered in written form, it's expanded to the full "6th of March" when spoken
That doesn't mean this won't be yet another feature American English absorbs from UK English but right now flipping them in speech requires a few extra syllables and people are lazy
people are lazy
Kinda relatable ngl
-
ISO 8601 rules!
RFC 3339 is where it's at
-
I'm sorry but it doesn't make sense TO ME. Based on what I was taught, regardless of the month, I think what matters first is to know what day of the month you are in, if at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of said month. After you know that, you can find out the month to know where you are in the year.
What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?
EDIT: To avoid misunderstandings:
- I am NOT making fun OF ANYONE.
- I am NOT negatively judging ANYTHING.
- I am totally open to being corrected and LEARN.
- This post is out of pure and honest CURIOSITY.
So PLEASE, don't take it the wrong way.
Anyone who doesn't use ISO 8601 is wrong.
-
Anyone who doesn't use ISO 8601 is wrong.
FACTS
-
Perhaps because where I live there are no seasons in the same way as in the United States, knowing the month doesn't matter to us unless we work in the fields, here there are only months of sun and months of rain.
Sure, but if I tell you the month, you still know what part of the year it is. If it's sunny, or if it's rainy must mean something to you.
-
Sure, but if I tell you the month, you still know what part of the year it is. If it's sunny, or if it's rainy must mean something to you.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Mmm not so much. I prefer to know on the first day so, for example, how close I am to payday, which is every two weeks. I don't care that much about months other than December since I finished college.
-
I'm sorry but it doesn't make sense TO ME. Based on what I was taught, regardless of the month, I think what matters first is to know what day of the month you are in, if at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of said month. After you know that, you can find out the month to know where you are in the year.
What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?
EDIT: To avoid misunderstandings:
- I am NOT making fun OF ANYONE.
- I am NOT negatively judging ANYTHING.
- I am totally open to being corrected and LEARN.
- This post is out of pure and honest CURIOSITY.
So PLEASE, don't take it the wrong way.
-
I'm sorry but it doesn't make sense TO ME. Based on what I was taught, regardless of the month, I think what matters first is to know what day of the month you are in, if at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of said month. After you know that, you can find out the month to know where you are in the year.
What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?
EDIT: To avoid misunderstandings:
- I am NOT making fun OF ANYONE.
- I am NOT negatively judging ANYTHING.
- I am totally open to being corrected and LEARN.
- This post is out of pure and honest CURIOSITY.
So PLEASE, don't take it the wrong way.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]deleted by creator
-
Perhaps because where I live there are no seasons in the same way as in the United States, knowing the month doesn't matter to us unless we work in the fields, here there are only months of sun and months of rain.
Yeah that makes sense then. I live in Minnesota and the seasons definitely matter here. Every 3 months will be a completely different drastic changes to temperature, weather, etc. So for planning, the month definitely matters and I think it makes more sense for us to say it first.
Not that it really matters that much haha.
-
I think of it as, if you got shot halfway through telling me the date of something, "December" on its own is more useful information than "12". Technically, "12" narrows it down to fewer possible dates, but it could be at any time of year, while December only happens once a year, in March or whatever.
That explains it, getting shot halfway through a sentence is far less likely outside America.
