What are attitudes about time in the culture(s) you are studying? Are these attitudes reflected in the language?
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What are attitudes about time in the culture(s) you are studying? Are these attitudes reflected in the language?
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Pakistani culture, like much of the indian subcontinent, does not view time in the same way that western countries do. Punctuality and fixing schedules have a more nebulous meaning; setting a date and time is used more as a goal that one attempts for rather than a fixed deadline. This is particularly poignant when seeing how people act when in the presence of elders. Even if a person has a deadline to meet or meeting time with someone else, this would come second to making sure the elder/authority has explicitly or implicitly granted the person permission to be on their way. Even so, the Islamic religion places much significance on time; daily prayer hours, a yearly pilgrimage to Mecca and the fasting times of Ramadan. Linguistically the religious importance in time can be seen by the names given to each daily prayer time and the specific yearly pilgrimage to Mecca, "haj", as compared to a pilgrimage to Mecca at any other time, "umra".
I think that time in Indian culture is not as important as it is in American culture. Indian people tend to be late to everything. Time is only a sense in Indian culture, it does not hold the importance as it does in America, where everyone is punctual and on time. These attitudes are reflected in their language by the way that people express themselves when speaking to one another. In India, two people will talk to each other genially and find out how the other is doing. It is very laid back and appointments are not even of that much importance. People actually care about each other and show that when they speak to one another. It is much more conversational and affable.
In recent days, Korea has developed in a rapid speed, and they have improvement on technology, such as Sumsang and Hyundai Motor. Based on Korean I learned so far, I find Korean is well organized. They prefer doing anything quickly, from Korean drama, the most frequent word they said is "Ppali ppali"(quickly quickly). Korean are sensitive about time-consuming.
Korean people are generally punctual, however the phrase “Ppali ppali” means “quickly, quickly,” is often uttered by a lower social status person to express their need to get their work done quickly. The lower ranking person are expected to be more punctual for meetings, while the boss or grandparents are not expected to be punctual. In a restaurant or a store, the store keeper says “eoseo oseyo” meaning “come quickly” to express their enthusiasm for their customers’ visit, and that they have been prepared to serve them. It is an impolite and rude to have their customers to have to wait for their services, thus it is important to say “eoseo oseyo.”
I think that time in Pakistani culture is not as important as it is in American culture. Where as in Americans tend to be very punctual and schedule oriented, in Pakistani culture time is not considered to be of central importance. These attitudes are reflected in their language by the way that people express themselves when speaking to one another. In Pakistan it is very common for two people when meeting to actually converse and find out how the other is doing. The only thing that is most time sensitive relates to their religion and prayer times. As Muslims, they are to pray five times a day, at dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset, and evening. These are very important times that Pakistanis as Muslims respect and conform to.
March 9 2015