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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Israelis are rarely on time but they still expect others to be on time. They are always on the go; very quick and blunt speaking, trying to hurry and running behind schedule. If you arrive late (later than an Israeli), sometimes it does not matter. But if you arrive late and it inconveniences them...you better have a good excuse. They do not like to be inconvenienced because their own time is very valuable to them; they value relaxation time and want to get things done as quickly as possible. You will often find people sitting at cafes enjoying a cup of coffee for hours the way you would en Europe, but you can also find them on a tight schedule trying to finish things quickly like americans. Their attitude towards time is selfish in a way, but I think of it more as they do not to waste time. If they are enjoying a leisurely conversation with a good friend, it is not time wasted, but if they are waiting around for someone, it is time wasted.
Time managing can be divided into two categories: monochronic time, where each single activity corresponds to a single “slot” of time, which is limited and each thing has to be done in its time, and polychronic time, where time is tied up to situations: more things can be done at once as time is flexible and multi-dimensional. Time can also be divided into linear, which flows in one direction and circular, which recurs each time. The Indian concept of time is a circular one, where there is no single beginning or a single end. Things happen in a circle, which distorts the idea of punctuality. This results in people always being late to everything. For example if the lunch date was set up for noon, the person might not show up until 1pm. It is expected to be late and is not considered rude or impolite. Unlike in the United States, people in India don’t always rush to everything, they always have time to chat and have some tea if they meet an acquaintance of a friend. People work long hours and spread the work over time. They take long lunches and other breaks during their work hours and oftentimes work late into the night or even weekends.
Religion also plays a big part in how time is viewed. In the Bible there is a beginning (creation) and an end (apocalypse). But in Indian culture everything is cyclic and an end can also be considered as a new beginning. People are supposed to accumulate positive karma by doing good deeds in order to reincarnate into something better. The concept of reincarnation is a cycle itself; there is no end once one is dead because they will come back to this world as either something better or something worse. Multitasking there way through life they don’t have to hurry to finish everything before the apocalypse, because they will always have another lifetime to do all the things that they didn’t have time to finish.
As I have already eluded to in some of my earlier posts, the Israelis have a very interesting relationship with time. Most Israelis are very abrupt and always appear to be in a rush. They are blunt and harsh and can seem abrasive. I am not sure if this is because they are always in a rush and so they don't feel that they have time to be polite, or because they aren't polite, they don't stay and make good valuable conversation so they end up appearing to be abrupt and blunt. Regardless of the chicken/egg issue, Israelis are very brief. They are frequently late, and they are always in a hurry, which makes no sense, other than it clearly clarifies that they have a very twisted relationship with time. It is not like in the United States where if you say you will be there at some time, you will be. Even when I was on birthright, the group leader would tell us to be downstairs at a certain time and he would be the last one down. I am not sure what the issue is in Israel - but they just don't understand time! I am not sure if the attitudes are reflected in the language. We did not learn about time this semester, but I would imagine that the Israelis don't have specific words for very specific times, I would guess they would estimate because they just don't really care when they arrive somewhere. I will study that next semester!
The biggest joke about Indians is that they are always late. Indians have very poor concept of time. If you tell an Indian to be somewhere at a certain time, you shouldnt expect them for an hour or so after the time given. Then when the event is over, Indians are always the last to leave. In other words, Indians will be late to the event, and then they will be the last people to leave. I always experienced this as a kid growing up. If I were to go out for dinner with all the extended family, the adults would tell the kids that we were leaving, but we wouldnt leave for another hour after that because the adults would get to talking again. It has been interesting for me to notice that now that we kids are getting older, we are following in this same pattern of never wanting to leave each others company and therefore staying out later than supposed to. This is not necessarily reflected in the language. The language is pretty relaxed when it comes to speaking about time. It is understood that when you say a time, you dont mean it literally.
With the ongoing economic turmoil, people in Ukraine have been scrambling to make ends meet because of the increasingly weak job market. This has resulted in the population of the country to increase their working hours and overall work efficiency. Punctuality in Ukrainian culture is key, in fact, it is a determinant of whether or not your are a suitable candidate for a job. Since the majority of the population has to travel via bus, train, subway, or any other form of public transport, the work day of a typical Ukrainian starts early as a result of the inconsistency in public transportation performance. During a typical Ukrainian summer, most public transport overheats and stalls creating traffic and chaos, while in the winter tram railings freeze over night, buses fail to start because of the increasingly low temperatures, and a wide variety of other malfunctions arise as transportation hurdles for the population of Ukraine. These road troubles result in a widely accepted culture of people leaving home significantly early for work or school, in order to make sure that they are prepared for whatever may happen on their trips to work. Typical Ukrainians have very busy schedules and often-time come home very late and go straight to bed; if anyone does show up early from their occupation they usually take advantage of the extra sleep that they are presented with rarely. Despite all this, the majority of the population does get Saturday and Sunday off so it makes up for the difficult work week. On weekends, typical Ukrainians take advantage of their rest time but are known for staying up late, beyond midnight to spend time with their families and friends. Weekends are also a popular time for the younger population of Ukraine to travel outside the large cities where they spend their workdays, to visit their families in the rural regions. The busy and fast-paced lives of the typical Ukrainian result in the tendency for people to speak rather quickly. As I am told, it can sometimes be very difficult to comprehend what one is saying, even for a native Ukrainian speaker.
Swedes are incredibly punctual. It is so rude in Sweden to show up to a party or dinner more than 10-15 minutes late. You can tell that Swedes really care about punctuality because they have so many ways to talk about the time. They use military time which is also more precise! In Sweden if someone asks you what time it is you can answer by literally saying the numbers (like it's 20:20) or you could tell them the time in relation to the top of the hour. If you wanted to say it was 8:30am you would say that it was half nine. 8:25am would be five till half nine. So they get pretty specific! When you add military time in there it just gets so precise. This makes it harder for non-speakers to be able to tell others what time it is or understand when someone else tells them the time but it's really helpful and cuts down on confusion.
We have talked about this a lot in our Swedish class and quite a few times on the blogs. Swedes are very punctual. Which is an interesting contrast to a lot of cultures I know of (hispanic). I am doing a research paper in my leadership class about the culture of the workplace in Sweden vs. America. A lot of articles I have read talk about how in Sweden the work day is from 8am to 4pm, and overtime rarely happens. Due to the fact when working you are expected to be efficient, so that overtime is not needed. I am not quite sure if this attitude is really reflected in the language. I always say that Swedish is a very logical language. For example barn means child, so if you wanted to say grandchild you would say barnbarn (child's child). I am not quite sure if that would actually reflect the punctual cultural view or more just the effectiveness of the language. That Swedes don't like to use fluff, they get straight to the point.