> So far as I can tell, the common word for statistical mean is "average" in English
You're quite probably right about common parlance..
> but it's not the correct technical language.
..but as you point out it's not really appropriate in a technical context, indeed I don't think I've come across the term "average" being used in this way in technical literature; I've normally either seen expectation (for probability theoretic cases) or mean (for statistical cases).
> So nobody should be hard on themselves for not knowing the difference.
Absolutely, which is why I think being hard on someone for not knowing the difference between "the average" and the median is similarly an issue.
You realize that an interview is not the same as writing a technical article, right? It should be a conversation between two potential coworkers, and, in that context, I think saying "average" instead of "mean" is totally fine.
Incidentally, "mean" doesn't quite cut it, if you want to be a stickler about it. There are several types of means: arithmetic, geometric, harmonic, etc. By that standard, you just failed the interview.
> "mean" doesn't quite cut it, if you want to be a stickler about it.
I'm going to assume, then, that you didn't read my original comment which started off this line of discussion? By that standard, you just failed the interview. ;)
You're quite probably right about common parlance..
> but it's not the correct technical language.
..but as you point out it's not really appropriate in a technical context, indeed I don't think I've come across the term "average" being used in this way in technical literature; I've normally either seen expectation (for probability theoretic cases) or mean (for statistical cases).
> So nobody should be hard on themselves for not knowing the difference.
Absolutely, which is why I think being hard on someone for not knowing the difference between "the average" and the median is similarly an issue.