Is this a date..?
Here’s a curious thing. At 6:54 and 32.1 seconds on the 10th of September 1987 the date and time would have been 10/9/87/6:54.32.1.
Unless, of course, you’re an American.
In the States the date is written ‘month/day/year’, while in the UK and Europe we say ‘day/month/year. So in the US, the same thing would have occurred on the 9th of October.
Confused?
If you are, it’s understandable. You see a date written as 1/4/22. Is it the 1st of April or the 4th of January? It’s easier when you see something that could only be one way – such as say 14/2/22, or its American cousin, 2/14/22. You know that it can only be February 14th, as any number over 12 can’t be a month.
But how can we reduce the confusion, and have some form of standard for dates? Who would agree it? The UK and Europe (and I assume, others around the world), would insist on day/month/year, while the States would have to be dragged, kicking and screaming away from their preferred format. And that’s before we get into inches and centimetres, where the States have a love of all things Imperial, while the UK, who originally invented it, have long since moved on to metric.
In this age of global communications, such anomalies have the potential for confusion. Missed an online meeting? “Sorry – I thought it was 9th October not 10th September… Or an identity issue - “No, my birthday isn’t 12th March, it’s 3rd December…” These are just some of the possible pitfalls.
And then there’s the spelling. So much of the software that originates in the States seems to struggle with British English. As a user of MS Word since the 1980s, I have always been frustrated with the default to US spelling that seems to be hard-wired into the programme (that’s ‘programme’’, by the way, not ‘program’). I find when I am working on a document, that if you correct a spelling from US to UK English, then click on the suggestion to ‘set UK English as default’, it seems to have no effect anywhere beyond the word you’ve just corrected. It seems to reset itself back to US spelling like some digital Groundhog Day. Why can’t it recognise that as I am a British user in the UK (which I have told it up front), then maybe, just maybe, I would prefer UK English spellings? It’s almost as if the programmers have decided to solve the transatlantic spelling anomaly by wearing everyone outside the US down by the sheer hassle of constantly having to correct their spelling - so that eventually we will fall into line out of a frustrated inability to resist. Our colours will become colors; instead of travelling, we will go traveling; everything will become standardized instead of standardised... I could go on, but you get the idea. And, of course, we’ll end up putting the month first, then the day, then the year, when we write our dates. For all I know this may already have happened, with kids being taught this format in schools even now.
Will it be a fair price to pay for clarity of communication? Maybe – languages and spelling change constantly, so I suppose it is inevitable that in the global world, we will eventually merge to a single standard so we can communicate more consistently. It will just leave old codgers like me moaning that ‘things aren’t what they used to be’, while everyone else just gets on with communicating.
Let me conclude this piece with one further thought.
Spelling might be one thing, but ‘meaning’ is another. Whether or not we merge our spellings, dates and measurements, will we ever get away from the Orwellian ‘doublespeak’ meanings we are subjected to every day? These are the sort of statements to which the only valid response is “Oh yeah? Who are you trying to kid?” I am sure you know the sort of things I mean:
“We record all calls for training purposes...” (actually it’s nothing to do with training our staff, it’s so we can prove later if we think you are trying it on)
“Your call is important to us…” (which is why we made finding the number as hard as we could on our website)
“All our advisors are busy dealing with other customers, so please check our website…” (I did – it didn’t have the answer, which is why I am calling you now) “...or call back when we’re less busy…” (which is when, exactly?)
And finally, one of my favourites: “The World Series” - a baseball tournament played only in North America.
If we can communicate more clearly on subjects just as these, I might just be prepared to accept that I need to double-check I have the right date, or use a zed (or a ‘zee’?) in my spelling.