Categories: uncategorized
Date: 11 April 2005 06:08:17
Today I taught telling the time using an analogue clock. I taught "o'clock", "half-past", "quarter past" and "quarter to". The students did very well, though there was some occasional confusion with the placement of the hour and minute hand. I also introduced the concepts of "AM" and "PM".
This reminded me of the various phrases different parts of the world use to tell the time. When I visited the United States, I heard people say "Quarter from" which sounded strange to me. Germans can use "Three-quarters 6" to mean 5:45. While we say "half-five" and mean 5:30, a German would take it to mean 4:30. And when discussing my class with my boss, she said Italians would say 1:50 as "2 minus 10"!
Do any of you know of other ways to say the time? I find it absolutely fascinating that something so basic as telling the time is manifested in such a variety of ways!