Attitudes about Time in the Target Culture
In regards to time, Korean attitudes towards time and punctuality are significantly different, if not opposite, from the American treatment of time. I think it’s fair to say that, in American culture, arriving as close to a predetermined time as possible is a sign of respect and politeness. Although it’s usually ok to be a few minutes earlier or late, it may reflect badly on you depending on the situation. On the other hand, I’ve read that the perception of time in Korean culture is much looser which gives way to a relaxed attitude towards being on time. Supposedly, tardiness is so common that it is better to expect lateness as the norm, especially in close relationships like among friends.
One theory traces the root of this socially accepted lateness to the Korean language itself. Apparently, when you talk about time in Korean you use words of approximation, such as ‘roughly’ or ‘around,’ even when discussing a specific time. Time is discussed in vague terms rather than precise ones. This habit of approximating time in Korean is thought to stem from how the ancestors of today’s Koreans dealt with units of time. These ancestors broke the day up into 12 2-hour units which reset every day at 11pm. Because of this division of time, an hour in this system would be equal to what we consider two hours, so an event starting during the 8th hour could start anywhere between 4-6pm.
It is important to note that some say that tardiness in Korean culture is on the decline, but none the less, tracing the roots of this style of tardiness through the Korean language is an interesting explanation of the cultural phenomenon.
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