@Regndroppar, a counter-counter question for you: What if I wrote “kilometres” as kilometers?
You know, I had to check back on the main site to see how the distance traveled was measured; I just assumed it was kilomete–…kilometres. It’s miles for me; I probably selected my preference years ago and forgot (I generally don’t pay much attention to the exact distance, anyway).
To answer your question about writing the distance in metric, I wouldn’t think twice about it; if anything, I would think, “Well, that’s a lot of kilometers.” Conversely, if anyone besides a Brit wrote the distance in miles, I would be equally appreciative (“Aw, she converted it for me!” ) and embarrassed by our anomalous measurements (“Why are we like this?!” ).
There are actually times when I prefer to use metric measurements–sewing, for example. Centimeters are a lot easier to add and subtract than fractions of inches. My husband does some woodworking, and also prefers metric.
@yarrow, funny that you should mention it–when I write the date, I write the day number and then spell out the full month name, too. I realize that our wacky way of writing the date causes some confusion when we say, “My birthday is 4/11!” and you don’t show up with a present until November.
I definitely write MM/DD/YYYY on nearly all domestic forms, because that is what’s expected, and to do so otherwise would cause confusion. But I also became used to writing the date as day number/month fully spelled out/year number on essay headers since grade 9 in school, where we mainly used MLA formatting rules. So I stick with that to avoid confusion.
In essence, I know we Americans are the weirdos here, so I never expect anyone else to follow our formats or units, even when you’re here in the States.
@bom_dia …I don’t believe you.