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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In South Korean, people are expected to be punctual.
Korean are expected to be on time since elementary school. Children will stand outside of classroom as a punishment if they are late for class in elementary school. Homework deadlines, especially, are supposed to be respected. Koreans are quite uncomfortable asking for extension of deadlines.
In restaurants, if the ordered dishes arrived late, the restaurants would more likely to give free dished to customers for the delay of foods.Another interesting fact related to this is that the express delivery industries in Korea are known for their efficiencies and inexpensive fees. They deliver everything such as foods from most restaurants.
I would say that the attitude toward time in Korea is similar to the US where punctuality is very much appreciated. Public transportation is a key player in this attitude towards time. All trains and buses are almost always on time (and from my language partner's point-of-view, she says to hold on tightly while riding a bus because whip lash). I think this view of time isn't as stressed in the social sphere of Korea, unless you're dealing with the workplace. The honorifics part of Korean definitely plays a part into how people treat time because one wouldn't want to keep a sunbae waiting on you. For the most part, I feel the workplace definitely is strict with time, but not super super strict like in other European countries where they expect you to be 15 minutes early.
In modern Korea, the concept of time is pretty similar to that in America: if something is scheduled at a certain time, you are expected to be there on time. There is also an expectation of punctuality on the part of public transportation, so trains and buses arrive at their stops frequently and with advance notice. Like in some American cities, there is an app that uses the bus schedule in Seoul to tell you how long you have to wait. While punctuality is not the most important thing, in order to maintain a good image in front of others, which is important in many Asian cultures, including Korea, it is essential to be on time and be humble if you are not.
For the most part, I would say that the concept of time in Korea is similar to how it is viewed in the US. Korea is a highly efficient, hard-working society, and people seem to be consistently under time-pressure. Therefore, being on time is important. While people are always expected to be on time, I don't think it is to the degree of Germany where everyone is expected to be early to be "on time." obviously, for things like job interviews, or important meetings, you are expected to be early, but that is similar to the US. An area that might defer between the US and Korea is that you most likely are more expected to be on time or be early if you are meeting someone that is older than you, or is more senior than you in the workplace. This ties back to the importance of respect and seniority in Korea, and reflects back to how the language is spoken to friends versus seniors.
Almost of all South Asian cultures can be considered Polychronic in nature. Polychronic societies place more emphasis on relationships rather than time. It is considered as a relatively expendable commodity. This is also true in Siraiki culture. One can expect Siraiki people to stay late into their meetings in order to continue a discussion. This ties into the fact that relationships take greater priority. To add to that, one does not expect Siraiki individuals to follow strict timetables or even honor time commitments. One can argue that these ideas are mind boggling to them. People are late to meetings, weddings, parties etc. My language partner informed me that wedding planners keep in mind that individuals would arrive late to weddings so they organize them to start late and ask the guest to arrive early. It is also interesting to note that the monochronic tendencies of Siraiki culture go against the very grain of the Islamic faith. Islam expects followers to pray on time. However, one cannot have such expectations from Siraiki people. This is an important observation as the Siraiki culture is only local to Pakistan, a country that was found on the basis of faith and the first Islamic Republic.
Do you mean polychronic instead of monochronic in the religion discussion? This is an interesting 'culture clash' that has not been mentioned before.
Because the culture of ASL is within the culture of the United States, the deaf feel the same about time as Americans do. However, there is one thing that I have learned about the deaf that mildly relates to this. Most deaf people are not surrounding by the deaf throughout the day. They have jobs, go grocery shopping, go to the doctor, and raise families just like hearing people do and it is rare that all of those activities involve only deaf people. By the end of the day, it is expected that they are tired of being around people who don't quite understand them. My language partner's roommate will often stay up quite late into the night just talking to her children about their days (both of her children are deaf). They need the time to release their feelings for the day and talk to someone who has no doubt about what they are saying. This is only relevant to the idea of time because, at least in this instance, she will stay up as long as it takes to get all her feelings out and then she will go to bed. I don't know if this is true of all the deaf, but I can imagine that something similar happens in most households where there are multiple deaf people.