Is "... 半年もしくは一年間 ..." unnatural?


" _I studied for about 2 or 3 years._ " is natural while " _I studied for
about 3 or 2 years._ " is not. Notice that the time period length sequencing
is from shortest to longest.

Yet, in this audio clip at _www.bbc.com_ the sequencing is longest to shortest
[How Japanese Police Confront Violence](http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-
pacific-38534288/wrapping-people-in-futons-how-the-japanese-police-confront-
violence) at the 20-second mark you can hear in the background the officer say

警察学校に一年もしくは半年...

(1) it is natural to list lengths of time in reverse numerical order?  
(2) ALSO, notice that he just said "一年" instead of "一年間" which contradicts my
understanding.

I definitely would have said:  
"警察学校に半年もしくは一年間..."

and this is definitely unnatural, correct? Both cannot sound natural?

What about "２、３本ぐらい飲んだ" vs. "３、２本ぐらい飲んだ"? Which is better?




I don't think his way of saying 1年もしくは半年 is strange in particular.

  * にさん is [a fixed phrase](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/21681/5010) that roughly means "a few", and reversing it (さんに) is fairly strange. But 1年もしくは半年 is not using a fixed idiom, and it does not sound as strange as さんに年 or ごし本くらい飲んだ.
  * This is a spoken sentence, which is not as organized as a written article. In speech, you may say something like "one, ...or maybe a half", adding "half" as an afterthought. His way of speaking is similar.

This 間 is optional, and it tends to be omitted in speech. Few people say
10分間待って in speech.




I don't think his way of saying 1年もしくは半年 is strange in particular.

  * にさん is [a fixed phrase](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/21681/5010) that roughly means "a few", and reversing it (さんに) is fairly strange. But 1年もしくは半年 is not using a fixed idiom, and it does not sound as strange as さんに年 or ごし本くらい飲んだ.
  * This is a spoken sentence, which is not as organized as a written article. In speech, you may say something like "one, ...or maybe a half", adding "half" as an afterthought. His way of speaking is similar.

This 間 is optional, and it tends to be omitted in speech. Few people say
10分間待って in speech.

