27 Folks All Over The World Reveal Their Equivalent Of "One Mississippi"

It might seem weird that people use the name of a place or an animal as a way to count. These words and phrases actually serve as placeholders to be able to accurately count time. Rather than fumble our way through by trying to count the seconds, these words are designed to help us do it without having to think about it too much.

The practice of using placeholders like "one Mississippi" is documented as early as 1960. It was originally used by people while playing games. Other interesting uses were by photographers who couldn’t see their watches in the darkroom. They could then measure time by speaking these words at a conversational rate, thereby understanding how many seconds had passed.

It’s interesting to see how many counting variations exist across the world. The word or phrase is often created to suit the place it is being used in. For example, a popular counting placeholder in England is the phrase “Piccadilly one, Piccadilly two.” Longer words like this are often better suited to counting because of the time it takes for people to pronounce them.

Animal names are also popularly used for counting. The most common one seems to be ‘crocodile,’ which is used in England, France, and even Poland. Nobody would actually like to count crocodiles, but as a technique to pass time, it’s probably one of the best options yet. Just like that, chimpanzees, elephants, and hippos are also used.

It is often shocking to realize that something you considered so normal and commonplace in your country could be completely different in another place. The same goes for these counting systems. It’s confusing to imagine why each place uses different phrases to count the same passage of time.

This is because language and culture vary from region to region. People incorporate different styles of talking based on what they see in their daily lives and their lived experiences. Even the Internet and social media can influence what people feel most comfortable with. That’s how these counting methods evolve and change from country to country.

These placeholder words for counting are just a small example of how people are different all across the globe. There are even greater differences that exist between us that make us unique and interesting. Unfortunately, there are some people who can’t accept this and put other folks down for not being from the same cookie-cutter mold.

Instead of fighting over our differences, we should appreciate how fascinating each of our cultures is. There is always so much to learn and do differently that we’ll never run out of interesting things to try. One of the best places to start is by trying out some of these fun ways to count.

The next time you play a game with your friends and need to count the time, why don’t you use one of these cool placeholders? Sure, it might confuse the heck out of all of the players involved, but it might also start an interesting discussion about different ways of doing things all across the world.

Do you have any more examples of different methods of doing the same thing across the globe? If so, we’d love to hear from you.