The comment I first replied to said the US was in the same middle-ground as the UK.
That is not true -- it's in a different middle ground, much further from a fully-metric country. That's all my point was.
> Why do you care if Americans talking amongst themselves speak in their own vernacular and system of measurements?
It's fine if they keep it to themselves. I'm never bothered by traditional Japanese floor area measurements, for example. But Americans attempt to use their own, private system when communicating to the rest of the world, in commerce, software and media. (Search "Weather Taipei" on Google while in Taiwan, with a browser set to not-US-English, and you end up with Fahrenheit etc. Set Windows to "English Ireland" and random bits of stuff will still be in miles/°F.)
This even leaks to non-Americans (or maybe English translators). It's annoying to go to a museum in, say, Brazil and see the Portuguese text uses metric, but this has been translated to pounds and feet in the English text. Most of the tourists reading the English aren't even American!
> But Americans attempt to use their own, private system when communicating to the rest of the world, in commerce, software and media.
What’s the difference between that and when the rest of the world tries to communicate with Americans using metric? In my experience foreigners in the US complain significantly more about the US not using metric while in the US than Americans do while in countries using metric.
> Search "Weather Taipei" on Google while in Taiwan, with a browser set to not-US-English, and you end up with Fahrenheit etc.
Can you not set your choice of units as a preference? Or are you annoyed that Google chose a default that is different than the one you wish to see? Given there is no universal choice that pleases everyone, wouldn’t their choice annoy some people no matter what? In any case, this is a complain to direct to Google and not Americans in general. Besides you’re free to use another weather app that matches your defaults.
> It's annoying to go to a museum in, say, Brazil and see the Portuguese text uses metric, but this has been translated to pounds and feet in the English text. Most of the tourists reading the English aren't even American!
This is a complaint that should be directed at a certain Brazilian museum.
That is not true -- it's in a different middle ground, much further from a fully-metric country. That's all my point was.
> Why do you care if Americans talking amongst themselves speak in their own vernacular and system of measurements?
It's fine if they keep it to themselves. I'm never bothered by traditional Japanese floor area measurements, for example. But Americans attempt to use their own, private system when communicating to the rest of the world, in commerce, software and media. (Search "Weather Taipei" on Google while in Taiwan, with a browser set to not-US-English, and you end up with Fahrenheit etc. Set Windows to "English Ireland" and random bits of stuff will still be in miles/°F.)
This even leaks to non-Americans (or maybe English translators). It's annoying to go to a museum in, say, Brazil and see the Portuguese text uses metric, but this has been translated to pounds and feet in the English text. Most of the tourists reading the English aren't even American!