Time Concept in 4 Countries

I was inspirited by my group presentation today in cross culture understanding course, because we were talking about time. One of part in our presentation is about concept of time in different countries. That is really interesting if you know the differences of some perceptions or concept about time because each country may have their own perception or concept. In my writing I would like to share about concept of time in 4 countries.

* America : “ Time is money”

It means every minute can be spent to earn money. Americans really respect the time because it’s precious and we should use it wisely. Their punctuality is early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable.

* Latin America: “ Hora Mexicana”

For the first time maybe this is not sound familiar for you. “Hora Mexicana is a term about time in Mexico. If you make an appointment in certain time, they will consider you come late. For instance, you have an appointment at 11 o’clock, it means it’s considered you come at 11:15, 11:30 or maybe 12 o’clock. If someone invite you in a party then you come on time, you will find yourself in there and you will get a sharp putdown from them. They may tease you with a term ‘Liegaste a barre?”, roughly meaning ‘did you arrive with the clean-up crew?’, which is sarcastically spoken to the early arriver.

* Arab : “Time is sword”

“If you don't cut it, it will end up cutting you". This proverb means simply a "sustainable" use of time, so don’t waste your time or it will be disaster for you.

* China : “Time is gold”

"An inch of time is an inch of gold but you can't buy that inch of time with an inch of gold. -Chinese Proverb" (Yī cùn guāngyīn yī cùn jīn, cùn jīn nán mǎi cùn guāngyīn)

It means even you have a lot of money in all over the world you can’t buy the time.

Time is also part of culture so that’s why different countries have different concept of time. But I do hope from now on you will respect the time by using as wisely as possible. :)

Let’s throw away term “Rubber Time”. Gung ho!!!

Thanks to my group : Bella, Irma, Emy and Puspita :). Way to go, guys!

Nurjanah