Why do Americans want to know the month first and the day second?
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Typewriter-optimized means it’s intentionally made to slow down your typing because the old typewriters couldn’t deal with too fast typing.
I wish that myth would die. If that was the case then E and R would be furthER away from each othER because being right next to each othER would make it likely for the two lettERs to bump into each othER.
Contrary to popular belief, the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow the typist down, but rather to speed up typing. Indeed, there is evidence that, aside from the issue of jamming, placing often-used keys farther apart increases typing speed, because it encourages alternation between the hands.
Thanks, didn't know. It's indeed a well-established myth then. Corrected my post.
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Then why "fourth of July"?
I suspect that when the holiday was getting going, it was spread by music, and "July 4th" doesn't carry the lyric .... Utility of "fourth of July"
The phrase "Born on, the fourth of, July!" Is buried in my consciousness but I can't name the song or any other lines to go with it.
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In America we only say July third or FOURTH OF JULY
I find that just to be because we are emphasizing the day over the month there. It isn't independence month, it's independence day.
It just comes from the UK like most of our shit does. The papers that were coming from there in the 1700s when we gained our independence said month, day, year. We stuck with it. The Units came from there as well and we only modified them to keep a standard. Then we tried to go full metric, and Ronald Reagan killed it.
That said if people are talking nonsense at a table at the bar or lunch and someone asks when you were born, they are usually expecting you to say "September" or "1949". If they ask how old are you, they are expecting "47.". Everything usually has context. Because usually someone only asks those questions if one they are talking about Astrological signs, or they are thinking that one age is better than another. To old to young nonsense.
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I find that just to be because we are emphasizing the day over the month there. It isn't independence month, it's independence day.
It just comes from the UK like most of our shit does. The papers that were coming from there in the 1700s when we gained our independence said month, day, year. We stuck with it. The Units came from there as well and we only modified them to keep a standard. Then we tried to go full metric, and Ronald Reagan killed it.
That said if people are talking nonsense at a table at the bar or lunch and someone asks when you were born, they are usually expecting you to say "September" or "1949". If they ask how old are you, they are expecting "47.". Everything usually has context. Because usually someone only asks those questions if one they are talking about Astrological signs, or they are thinking that one age is better than another. To old to young nonsense.
My reply was only silly nonsense kicked off when I said Third of July in my head.
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I'm a fan of ISO-8601 which is YYYY-MM-DD. When context is known, dropping the year on something is fine (i.e. if I post a schedule saying 'summer 2025 schedule', I don't need to start every date on it with 2025). Japanese does this as well (and I think Chinese and Korean, but someone is welcome to correct me if I'm wrong there).
If the year and month are already known, just using the day is fine as well (a calendar doesn't write the full date in every square). Having it in that order makes sense to me.
MM-DD-YYYY is right out, though, so I only agree with the 'muricans on the MM-DD part.
Whoo. ISO-8601 fan club. Its so much easier for computers to sort dates in that format. I insist on using it for documents at work and Excel even handles it better with less formatting issues. I do wish they covered it in schools earlier, its neat, logical and works best when everyone is on the same page.
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Canada's government has this standard, YYYY-MM-DD, but even they are inconsistent.
The rest of Canada often follows America's MM-DD-YYYY.
It's the inconsistency that's ridiculous.
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For no other reason than to be different and contrary. Metric system anyone?
Are you saying we Americans do things in objectively worse ways, just to remind everyone what we have the freedom to be confidently wrong?
Because I can confidently tell you there's no examples of us doing that. (This is sarcasm, intended to amuse you.)
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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.
They say it "June 1st", as opposed to "1st of June", so it makes sense to write it that way. That, mate, was a hard lesson to learn for me lol.
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Canada's government has this standard, YYYY-MM-DD, but even they are inconsistent.
The rest of Canada often follows America's MM-DD-YYYY.
It's the inconsistency that's ridiculous.
Be the change you want to see. I use month names or ISO 8601 in anything written, have been for a year to the point where using month names is more accidental than anything else. If anyone asks, I mention it's government standard. Hopefully, the ambiguous date forms die out faster than the Imperial system.
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I think it's just the way we talk. It's just more common for us to refer to a date in speech like "Today is June 1st". Whereas other countries would say "Today is the 1st of June". Neither is wrong, it's just how things are said.
It's more efficient to say June 1st. I suppose you could say 1st June though. Not sure if anyone does that.
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Same. Keeps my reports nice and organized.
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I like it. Many agree that YYYY-MM-DD is superior. It also reflects informational entropy. Each additional piece of information narrows down the search space most efficiently.
But in normal conversation, chances are we’re talking about the current year. So it makes sense to skip the year, or save it for last.
Word by word, if someone says the month first, I’m already able to know roughly when this date is. Then the information is hammered out with the day.
If someone says the day first, it barely helps — could literally be in any month of the year. It leaves too much unknown until the next piece of information is received.
Spoken language is already inefficient, which is why we use so many shortcuts in it. If I'm texting someone about an upcoming event, I might also just use the day of the month or the weekday (wings on Fri?). But if I'm writing an email, signing a document, or doing something else that might be referenced weeks, months, or years in the future, ISO 8601 is the way to go.
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Then again, you also write $5 but say it five dollars. The way something is said can be different from how it is written.
The French, at least in Canada, put the currency symbol after the number.
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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 say June 2nd of 2025
I type 2025-06-02
Handwritten it's 2-June-2025
I'm from before 2000 and the turn to years being so small broke me, it used to be so clear which number was the year with just 2 digits, and day, month, year is sorting from smallest unit to biggest, it has logic. But then for awhile you could have a 04, an 05, and an 06 and I was working with other countries, it wasn't at all clear which was year month or day, so I started sandwiching the month in the middle as a word when handwriting dates and using 4 digit year, and year month day sorts like a dream for filenames.
