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Högertrafikomläggningen

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Re: Högertrafikomläggningen

#91

Post by [deleted] »

hnarn wrote: post #64
Arnt wrote: post #57

I cannot resist… I have to tell… when they did it, they had non-stop media coverage, as much as could possibly be done. An hour or two after traffic switched, TV broadcast from Svinesund, the biggest of the road crossings to Norway, and a major route for road haulage, and a reporter said something like "here we have the driver of a Norwegian 18-wheeler, . Well, , what do think of the big reform?" Norwegian, looking a…

This almost sounds like a sketch since Sweden has “Norway jokes” where the punchline is consistently how dumb Norwegians are — a structure that I’m sure is mirrored in Norway and similarly in other countries (england/scotland, france/belgium maybe?)

[deleted]

Re: Högertrafikomläggningen

#92

Post by fl7305 »

stareatgoats wrote: post #81
lb1lf wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yes. In Norway we have the exact same jokes about the Swedes. One quip which did the rounds in the papers prior to the Swedes starting to drive on the right was that they would perform the switch in several phases - first heavy traffic, then cars a month later...

> In Norway we have the exact same jokes about the Swedes This is a fairly recent development. When I moved to Sweden in the 1970s, it was so bad I learned Swedish at accelerated rate in order to avoid the kneejerk compulsion of many (if not most) Swedes to tell their favorite jokes about how dumb Norwegians seemed to be. No doubt a consequence of century-old rivalry and the fact that Sweden during the early part of…

> As Norway has become progressively richer these jokes in Sweden about Norwgians have more or less disappeared however.

Yeah, the prevailing notion in Sweden is now that Norway is so much better off that we swedes should declare war on Norway.

After which we promptly surrender, and all our problems become Norway's problems instead.

Re: Högertrafikomläggningen

#93

Post by acheron »

user20180120 wrote: post #53

Making everyone speak English should not happen! We need to understand that the language you are able to think in - limits your thinking. Some languages have things you cannot translate into English. These non translateable concepts do not exist in the Western world view point.

Sapir-Whorf is nonsense.

Re: Högertrafikomläggningen

#94

Post by carlosjobim »

mg wrote: post #2

Maybe the world should standardize on: Driving on the right Speaking English The metric system The 2024-06-09 date format The Celsius scale The 24-hour clock

> Speaking English

Let's standardize that to the Newspeak version of English for clarity and to make hackers happy.

Re: Högertrafikomläggningen

#95

Post by throwaway290 »

> changing to driving on the right reduced accidents while overtaking, as people already drove left-hand drive vehicles, thereby having a better view of the road ahead

They already used left-hand drive vehicles but rode on the left?? That's just ridiculous and obvious why they switched...

Re: Högertrafikomläggningen

#96

Post by throwaway290 »

alkonaut wrote: post #89

Having a non-binding referendum and moving against the 85% vote takes balls. And we're forever greatful that they did. Presumably people thought it would be inconvenient and voted no, while politicians realized the cost of doing it later would be much larger than just ripping the band aid off. At the time, the number of massive motorway crossings and similar was probably nearly zero. Today the cost would be unimagina…

If you already drove cars where drivers sit left side as Wikipedia says, what exactly were those 85% thinking about? Clearly not road safety?

Re: Högertrafikomläggningen

#97

Post by ben_w »

hnarn wrote: post #64
Arnt wrote: post #57

I cannot resist… I have to tell… when they did it, they had non-stop media coverage, as much as could possibly be done. An hour or two after traffic switched, TV broadcast from Svinesund, the biggest of the road crossings to Norway, and a major route for road haulage, and a reporter said something like "here we have the driver of a Norwegian 18-wheeler, . Well, , what do think of the big reform?" Norwegian, looking a…

This almost sounds like a sketch since Sweden has “Norway jokes” where the punchline is consistently how dumb Norwegians are — a structure that I’m sure is mirrored in Norway and similarly in other countries (england/scotland, france/belgium maybe?)

I have no idea if the Scots think or joke that the English are stupid, but can say that the English have a joke pattern of "An Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotsman…" and it's always and only the Irish who are picked on.

Re: Högertrafikomläggningen

#98

Post by Symbiote »

yokoprime wrote: post #45
purple-leafy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Driving on the right No thanks > 2024-06-09 date format That doesnt infer what you want. Are you saying you want YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-DD-MM

Nobody ever should write YYYY-DD-MM, its the worst of both worlds with the structure being both in a non-logical order AND not conforming to how dates are pronounced.

Just in case it isn't clear, the usual European date format (DD-MM-YYYY though the separators vary) reflects the usual pronunciation ­— even in Britain and Ireland, where today is the ninth of June.

Re: Högertrafikomläggningen

#99

Post by encom »

constantcrying wrote: post #10
mg wrote: post #2

Maybe the world should standardize on: Driving on the right Speaking English The metric system The 2024-06-09 date format The Celsius scale The 24-hour clock

>Speaking English Having worked in an international organization where most people communicated in English and most people were ESL, going back to a company where my native language was the norm was a huge benefit in clarity of communications. Languages certainly form how we think, a universal language undoubtedly leads to worse communication and worse ideas.

>clarity of communications

I (native dane) work in robotics. Our company has a disproportionate amount of non-danes employed, who also are not native english speakers. I've been reading and writing english since I was very young, but having almost never spoken it makes face-to-face communication challenging. And not only that, but I encounter colleagues conversing in Hindi, Russian, Hungarian, Polish, Greek etc. Any of those conversations is one I'm locked out of, and unable to contribute to. It's really a Tower Of Babel type of situation here. Effective communication is a frustrating chore, especially since we're talking about highly technical subjects. Upper management thinks our diversity is a strength, but I'm just not seeing it from where I'm sitting.

In my next job, this is a situation I will seek to avoid.

Re: Högertrafikomläggningen

#100

Post by emchammer »

mg wrote: post #2

Maybe the world should standardize on: Driving on the right Speaking English The metric system The 2024-06-09 date format The Celsius scale The 24-hour clock

Sorry, why would you write 2024? I thought it's the year 5784.
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