Attitudes to time may differ between different cultures in often quite significant ways. For example, being late for an appointment, or taking a long time to get down to business, is the accepted norm in most Mediterranean and Arab countries, as well as in much of less-developed Asia. Such habits, though, would be anathema in punctuality-conscious USA, Japan, England, Switzerland, etc. In the Japanese train system, for example, “on time” refers to expected delays of less than one minute, while in many other countries, up to fifteen minutes leeway is still considered “on-time”.
Cultural attitudes to time also differ throughout history. The pace of modern Western life, with its fast food, express delivery, instant coffee, sell-by dates, speed-dating, speed-dialling, etc, as well as our reliance on clocks and the constant time pressure we seem to find ourselves under, would probably be absolutely incomprehensible to someone just a hundred years ago. Before transcontinental railways and the telegraph and the introduction of Standard Time in the 1880s (see the section on Time Standards), different countries, states, and even neighbouring towns, kept their own time with no attempt at consistency. Even though clocks, and later watches, were widely available, much of the world still estimated their time by the natural rhythms of the Sun and Moon until late into the 19th Century.
Time Orientation
One way of looking at cultural attitudes to time is in terms of time orientation, a cultural or national preference toward past, present, or future thinking. The time orientation of a culture affects how it values time, and the extent to which it believes it can control time. For example, America is often considered to be future-orientated, as compared to the more present-orientated France and the past-orientated Britain. Often (but not always), a past orientation arises in cultures with a long history, like India or China, and a future orientation in younger countries, like the USA.
Future-orientated cultures tend to run their lives by the clock. The United States is one of the fastest paced countries in the world, perhaps partly due to the fact that many Americans are always looking to the future, striving for the “American Dream”. It is a culture that values busy-ness, which equates a hectic and frenzied life-style with success, status and importance. Japan is also an extremely time-conscious culture, although the Japanese probably lay more emphasis on time management and efficient lifestyles than Americans, and consequently may feel less constantly rushed and frustrated.
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