The Numbers in Paris
It took me awhile to get used to some of the number conventions here in France. And not just the obvious ones. So let's talk numbers ...
There was a lot of paperwork when we first moved, so I was quick to remember the convention for dates: just flip the month and day. For example, July 14, 2019 is 12/7/19. It's the day/month/year, where is we do it month/day/year. You get it.
Time is told mostly on the 24-hour clock so, to assimilate, I challenged myself to think of 21:00 as bedtime, instead of always converting it. The trick is to subtract 12 (in most cases) to get the 12-hour clock time (eg. 18:00 - 12 becomes 6:00pm).
But the kids are still confused by the time and they constantly ask me "what time it is?" when they only see the digital clock in the kitchen. And we have an analog clock in the hallway, so that messes them up further.
Of course, everything is in Celsius and the metric system, as it is everywhere else in the world but America, so we've had to make conversations with temperature or reading a recipe. Our Amazon Echo sits in the kitchen and is most useful when I need to bake cookies at 375˚ ("Alexa, what's 375 Fahrenheit in Celsius?") with 2 cups of butter ("Alexa, how many grams is 2 cups of butter").
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| What Time Is It?! |
Time is told mostly on the 24-hour clock so, to assimilate, I challenged myself to think of 21:00 as bedtime, instead of always converting it. The trick is to subtract 12 (in most cases) to get the 12-hour clock time (eg. 18:00 - 12 becomes 6:00pm).
But the kids are still confused by the time and they constantly ask me "what time it is?" when they only see the digital clock in the kitchen. And we have an analog clock in the hallway, so that messes them up further.
Of course, everything is in Celsius and the metric system, as it is everywhere else in the world but America, so we've had to make conversations with temperature or reading a recipe. Our Amazon Echo sits in the kitchen and is most useful when I need to bake cookies at 375˚ ("Alexa, what's 375 Fahrenheit in Celsius?") with 2 cups of butter ("Alexa, how many grams is 2 cups of butter").
Then there is the building floor numbering system. In Europe, there's a ground floor, and you travel up a flight of stairs to the 1st floor and so on. In the U.S., most ground floors are considered the 1st floor, and up that first flight of stairs gets you to the 2nd floor. Is it weird how both systems make perfect sense?
Lastly, if you've ever studied the French language you know numbers are crazy-weird. Starting at 70 the language forces us to do math. Awk! So 70 is "60 and 10" (soixante-dix), 80 is "4 20s" (quatre-vingts) and 90 is "4 20s and a 10" (quatre-vingt-dix) .... so 99 is "4 20s a 10 and 9" (quatre-vingt-dix-neuf) or 4 x 20 + 19. Nuts.
The French speaking Belgiums and Swiss have come up with words for these numbers, instead of a math problem: 70 – septante, 80 – huitante, 90 – nonante. But the French have not adopted it, though I'm sure most know it.
Most of these number changes I was familiar with, but it becomes a different thing when you have to live around it everyday.
Related posts:
Read more observations about our Paris life
Lastly, if you've ever studied the French language you know numbers are crazy-weird. Starting at 70 the language forces us to do math. Awk! So 70 is "60 and 10" (soixante-dix), 80 is "4 20s" (quatre-vingts) and 90 is "4 20s and a 10" (quatre-vingt-dix) .... so 99 is "4 20s a 10 and 9" (quatre-vingt-dix-neuf) or 4 x 20 + 19. Nuts.
The French speaking Belgiums and Swiss have come up with words for these numbers, instead of a math problem: 70 – septante, 80 – huitante, 90 – nonante. But the French have not adopted it, though I'm sure most know it.
Most of these number changes I was familiar with, but it becomes a different thing when you have to live around it everyday.
Related posts:
Read more observations about our Paris life
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