Is it to late?

Thinking about how long has it been since ...? I remembered that discussion that I had with many people at the turn of the millennium. Many used to argue that the year 2000 was not the beginning of the "new" millennium as they argued that the year 2001 should be the first. It was so difficult to explain why the year 2000 was the beginning as the counter argument was that there is no year zero at the beginning of counting. We know that zero is a number but how can we explain that this number counts as a place in the sequence of event if zero is understood as a non-event.
I don't know if it is too late to argue about our counting (measuring) of time but one thing I know: it is the semantic knowledge through our language (or the lack of it) that leads us to the understanding(or to problems) of dating. Here is an easy way out: If I have been teaching (i.e. I am still doing it) since a particular date, I can count how many years have passed (X) and I can say that I am in my Yth year. Where Y = X + 1. In this sense the year 2000 is in fact the 2001st year as 2000 years have passed.