Can you not tell time?

[Muses_nightmare]

I was in Crappy tire the other day and this woman comes over and asks me what time it is. The conversation goes something like this:

Me:
L :Lady

L: Hi, do you know what time it is?
Me: Yep, it's 20 to 3
L : *blank stare* What? It's 2:20?
Me: No 20 minutes to 3
L : *blank stare* So...it's, what?
Me: 2:40
L: oh, okay, so it's almost three then?
Me: yes.

Just WTF

Edited, because apparently, I can't read numbers :P

[One-Fang]

Heheh. You might want to edit that.

Was it 20 to 2 or 20 to 3?

Combined with your error, it reminds me of Dumb and Dumber:

What time to meet - 7.45?
No, I've got some things to do first, better make it quarter to eight.

[Muses_nightmare]

Ah thanks for pointing that out. That's what I get for trying to type things out right after work.

[Imogene]

*makes a big production of weeping*
How did you figure out my problem? Who told you? I'll hurt them! Was it Johnny? Did he tell you?
*stops, gets extremely calm suddenly*
Oh, wait! I don't believe in time... may I be excused?

[Lingering Grin]

*makes a big production of weeping*
How did you figure out my problem? Who told you? I'll hurt them! Was it Johnny? Did he tell you?
*stops, gets extremely calm suddenly*
Oh, wait! I don't believe in time... may I be excused?

Sure, but you have to come back in 20 minutes for the quiz.

[CherryB]

My brother, who is a certified genius-170 IQ and he really is a rocket scientist at a Dept of Defense contractor.....cannot tell time on an analog clock or watch. Unless it's digital, forget it.

[Muses_nightmare]

I have the same problem to a certain extent. But more or less, this was me telling her the time. I had assumed most people knew what 20 to 3 or whatever time meant, perhaps I was wrong.

[Danno]

Apparently saying "quarter 'til" or somesuch isn't as common anymore, and a lot of kids/teenagers haven't heard it before.

One of the teenage girls at the stand asked me what time it was once. When I said "Twenty 'til," she replied thoughtfully, "Oh, so that would be like 5:40?" See, she had never heard the time referred to that way before, but unlike the woman in the OP she had some brains and used them.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

My brother, who is a certified genius-170 IQ and he really is a rocket scientist at a Dept of Defense contractor.....cannot tell time on an analog clock or watch. Unless it's digital, forget it.

Hm...does he have dyscalculia? Lot of dyscalculics can't find their way around a clock. In fact, we're having that conversation over at that forum right now (nothing like a little synchronicity). Dyscalculia also tends to effect people with really high IQs, so I'm curious.

This is not a problem I have, but if you tell me somthing like twenty to three, it takes me just a tiny bit longer to process that than if you'd said three...uh...shit, I dont' have a clock face in front of me so I don't know...Than if you'd said it the other way.

Crap. About thirty seconds has passed and I don't know what that is yet. I'm thinking. Three forty. There. Takes me a minute. Sometimes literally.

[Geek King]

(nothing like a little synchronicity).

Many miles away
Something crawls to the surface
Of a dark Scottish loch

[Muses_nightmare]

Apparently saying "quarter 'til" or somesuch isn't as common anymore, and a lot of kids/teenagers haven't heard it before.

One of the teenage girls at the stand asked me what time it was once. When I said "Twenty 'til," she replied thoughtfully, "Oh, so that would be like 5:40?" See, she had never heard the time referred to that way before, but unlike the woman in the OP she had some brains and used them.

I can see younger people not getting it, if it's not as common in speech anymore (though, pretty well everone I know says it) but this lady looked about middle aged. *shrugs* Maybe she was having an off day.

[JustADude]

...twenty to three...

Crap. About thirty seconds has passed and I don't know what that is yet. I'm thinking. Three forty. There. Takes me a minute. Sometimes literally.

Um... RK... I hate to say this... but you still missed.

Twenty-'til-Three is twenty minutes before three... therefore Two-Forty.

Sorry.

[mharbourgirl]

Heh, I have the opposite problem. The time only seems real and immediate if I see it on an analog face. I literally have to do a conversion in my head to make the time on a digital readout seem 'real'.

[Chromatix]

I'm fortunate - I can read analogue, 12-hour digital and 24-hour digital with equal ease. I even know how to use an analogue watch (or an imaginary one) as a makeshift solar compass, and I can deal with timezones fairly reliably.

Unfortunately, my body doesn't seem to be able to read the sun. I'm forever alternating between diurnal and nocturnal, and I've got in trouble for being late due to emphatically not being a "morning person".

My understanding of 12-hour time is that it goes 11:59am, 12 noon, 12:01pm. A bit counter-intuitive if you only look at the sequence of hours, but it makes semantic sense. If you don't have "noon" and "midnight" indicators, it's acceptable to say 12:00pm, because for example 12:00:01pm is correct. And of course the reverse for midnight.

I have an old flip-digit clock that follows the above convention. :-)

[been_there]

I think this can be a regional thing, too. In Home State, everyone uses the "quarter to"/"ten 'til" method that drew me abundant blank stares when I moved to Current State. I still stumble with 2:45/3:50 sometimes.