mm/dd/yy VS dd/mm/aa, date format.
¿En qué países, aparte de los Estados Unidos, se utiliza el formato mm/dd/aa para escribir fechas?
En México usamos el formato dd/mm/aa. Ejemplo: 22/06/10
- mm > mes / month
- dd> día / day
- aa> año / yy>year
7 Answers
Silly children. Brace yourselves... We haven't always had computers.
I know that is a shocker to some of you
And not everyone has always been able to write. Hard to fathom, I know, but before computers, there were forms. And before forms, there was memory.
Hang in there a moment, I can make this make sense.
When teaching or learning anything you have to get past the first step to get to the second.
Try explaning something. Just about anything. You always want to give the person something they can grasp. If they are still trying to understand what you said first while you are explaining what comes next, you won't need to explain what comes after that!
Always start with simple. There are only 12 months and they have names - most of the names are from numbers, but we use the names. For many people, the simplicity is important.
There are a few more days to pick from, but it will always be a number less than 32. Counting is always one of the earlier things learned, it's the math part that gets tricky.
The year is different, there have been thousands of those. Sometimes it is important. Sometimes it is only piece of the date that is important. But if you want someone to memorize the whole date with out the advantage of seeing it first or being able to write it down, give them the easiest parts first.
In the computer world it is most beneficial to use yyyymmddhhss, absolutely!
But references to which revolution around the sun our planet was on at the time of a specific event didn't start with the computer; it was passed, often only verbally, and often to people who could not read nor write.
Sadly, there have been people that only knew their name and when (supposedly) they were born.
Maybe someday we will all use the same format, a more computer friendly - forget what works for the beginners - format.
Until then, I am very happy that Microsoft, et. al. allow us to at least choose from the choices they want us to use.
The mm/dd/yyyy also used in Belize, Canada, Micronesia, Palau and the Philippines. Wikipedia adds the following in relation to Canada:
Although most official government documents use the yyyy-mm-dd format, the mm/dd/yy format is also understood due to influences from the United States.
I can't stand dd / mm / yyyy. For me it has to be either mm / dd / yyyy or yyyy / mm / dd.
Starting with the month it's confusing. ¿Por qué se hace de esa forma? Why is made like that? (I'm not sure how to ask that, correct me.)
In the UK, we tend to use dd/mm/yy.
Sorry Joel.
And Brynleigh.
It should be written YYYY / MM / DD - that way it could be easily sorted on computers. 
Starting with the month it's confusing.
I can see your point Morbo. But this is like anything else. If you have seen the date written like this since childhood, it seems very natural. Whenever I have to fill out the date of my birth on an airplane or give the date in Mexico or other countries, it takes me a few seconds to focus on doing it the other way.
However, I do think that it makes more sense to write the day before the month. Unless you are living on another planet, most people can remember what month we are in. However, which day of the month is much easier to forget. Therefore, I think it makes sense to have this number come first.
