<story><title>Bilingual speakers experience time differently, study finds</title><url>http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/articles/2017/language-shapes-how-the-brain-perceives-time/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Swizec</author><text>The first thing I learned in the US: nobody says half past or ten to or any of those things. They only make sense on analog round clocks.&lt;p&gt;What people say is stuff like &amp;quot;six twenty&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;four fiftyfive&amp;quot; etc</text></item><item><author>Broken_Hippo</author><text>I can understand how this happens.&lt;p&gt;For example, telling time in Norwegian took me viewing time differently. English tends to place importance on the last whole hour that passed: Half past six, six thirty-five, six twenty. It isn&amp;#x27;t until we approach the next whole hour that we give it any credit: Quarter &amp;#x27;til seven.&lt;p&gt;Norwegian, on the other hand, seems to focus more on the &amp;quot;now&amp;quot; and the future, orientated around the nearest 15-minute mark and the next whole hour, only focusing on the hour that has passed for the first 15 minute. &lt;i&gt;it is quite possible I&amp;#x27;ve flubbed on the exact phrasing: While my Norwegian is on the upper end of adequate and passed the state tests, I am still far from truly fluent&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;6:20? Ten &amp;#x27;til half seven.
6:30? Half seven. 
6:35? Five over half seven.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nikkwong</author><text>I think that&amp;#x27;s beside the point though. I think the point being presented is more: if you are visualizing what time it is in your head, what is the visual representation of time that you have, as presented by your language? In english, if it&amp;#x27;s 4:23, I feel as though I&amp;#x27;m &amp;quot;in&amp;quot; the 4:00 hour, 23 minutes past it. 4:45? Well then I feel like I&amp;#x27;m still &amp;quot;in&amp;quot; the 4:00 hour but now 45 minutes into it. Even 4:59 still feels like the 4:00 hour!&lt;p&gt;The very construct of how a different language presents that time may cause that perception to differ. At least that&amp;#x27;s how I think of it.</text></comment>
<story><title>Bilingual speakers experience time differently, study finds</title><url>http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/articles/2017/language-shapes-how-the-brain-perceives-time/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Swizec</author><text>The first thing I learned in the US: nobody says half past or ten to or any of those things. They only make sense on analog round clocks.&lt;p&gt;What people say is stuff like &amp;quot;six twenty&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;four fiftyfive&amp;quot; etc</text></item><item><author>Broken_Hippo</author><text>I can understand how this happens.&lt;p&gt;For example, telling time in Norwegian took me viewing time differently. English tends to place importance on the last whole hour that passed: Half past six, six thirty-five, six twenty. It isn&amp;#x27;t until we approach the next whole hour that we give it any credit: Quarter &amp;#x27;til seven.&lt;p&gt;Norwegian, on the other hand, seems to focus more on the &amp;quot;now&amp;quot; and the future, orientated around the nearest 15-minute mark and the next whole hour, only focusing on the hour that has passed for the first 15 minute. &lt;i&gt;it is quite possible I&amp;#x27;ve flubbed on the exact phrasing: While my Norwegian is on the upper end of adequate and passed the state tests, I am still far from truly fluent&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;6:20? Ten &amp;#x27;til half seven.
6:30? Half seven. 
6:35? Five over half seven.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dragonwriter</author><text>&amp;gt; The first thing I learned in the US: nobody says half past or ten to or any of those things.&lt;p&gt;I hear people say those all the time. Somewhat less with people under 30 or so.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; They only make sense on analog round clocks.&lt;p&gt;Actually, 10 minutes til &amp;lt;hour&amp;gt; makes perfect sense as a description of time independent of any mechanism of displaying the time.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not a natural way to &lt;i&gt;read&lt;/i&gt; a digital clock, but not all discussion of time proceeds from reading clocks. Also, analog round wall clocks (and watches, and digital faces for smart watches that simulate them) still exist, and aren&amp;#x27;t that uncommon, taken together.</text></comment>