The amount of immigrants in the US is increasing each year. I think if the government doesn't make the switch, and if global commerce doesn't force us into it, then if anything the large immigrant population will switch us; at least partially. It will certainly get people used to the idea. But a complete transition will still require the government to be on board, in order to switch things like road signs.
--- On Mon, 1/19/09, Victor Jockin <[email protected]> wrote: From: Victor Jockin <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:42364] Re: Is there any literature on metrication in the US aimed at immigrants? To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Monday, January 19, 2009, 4:19 AM About immigrants, this is all anecdotal, but my parents are both immigrants (from The Netherlands) and they are both generally appalled that the US never switched to the metric system. My wife is a Brazilian immigrant, and she also wishes the US would get on board. Immigrant groups are a natural ally for us, I think, because they will adapt to be here, but they also realize more than others how awkward and isolated our system is. My dad told me an amusing story, that back when he came to the US in the early 60's, he saw a patient (my Dad's an MD) who happened to work for NIST. My dad asked him why the US never adopted the metric system, and the guy said "Oh, we're working on that, we should be switched over in a few years". -------------------------------------------------- From: "Pierre Abbat" <[email protected]> Sent: 01/18/2009 6:39 AM To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:42354] Is there any literature on metrication in the US aimed at immigrants? > > The church yesterday held a health screening where they checked our > cholesterol, glucose, and other signs. After getting my blood glucose > checked, I went to another station which had a digital scale (pèse-personne). > I stepped on it and it showed my mass in pounds, which is meaningless to me, > since I have always thought of it in kilograms since I was 36 kg when they > introduced metric in school. The nurse then tried to divide by 2.2 in her > head and got it wrong. I volunteered my calculator, which has the conversion > built in; she entered the numbers and got 0, because it's reverse Polish, > which she's unfamiliar with. > > After everyone else had been weighed, I turned the scale over, flipped the > switch, stepped on it, and read 56.8, which agrees with my mass measured at > home, considering that I was wearing clothes. I know she is familiar with > kilograms because (1) she's an immigrant; (2) I overheard her explaining to > the previous patient that you divide your mass in kilograms by the square of > your height in meters; and (3) I talked with her after flipping the switch. > > It appears that the immigrants try to conform to what they think is the way we > do it. Is there any literature aimed at people who come here already knowing > metric, but haven't lived through the introduction of metric in the 1970s, > empowering them to push Americans to metricate? > > Pierre > >
