In Brazil, it is considered rude to be on time to a party • Hacker News Board

Re: In Brazil, it is considered rude to be on time to a party

#21

Post by fiblye » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 4:02 AM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #6

I don't think this is just a Brazilian thing. When I throw parties in the US nobody shows up until 30 mins after the start time, and the peak of people showing up is between 60 and 90 minutes after start time. The exception to this is dinner parties, where people are much more punctual because they know you're planning the meal timeline.

I've been to parties where a few friends--the same people each time--would show up 2-3 hours late to a party and their house was only a 10 minute walk away.

When I'd ask why they were late, it was the same reason each time. "Oh, we were watching a movie." A typical movie is 90 minutes long, so they would've been putting it on just around the time the party started.

In general though, everyone was a good 20-30 minutes late, but a few people and myself would show up early to help the host prepare last minute food/drinks.

Re: In Brazil, it is considered rude to be on time to a party

#22

Post by saosebastiao » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 4:05 AM UTC

I can at least vouch for the fact that Cariocas have a tough time adjusting to normal Anglo punctuality demands. As a Portuguese speaking student I ended up with quite a few Brazilian friends and many of the Cariocas ended up flunking out of school. Not because they were dumb or didn't work hard, but because they couldn't show up on time for tests and never understood why they couldn't just take a test two hours late.

Re: In Brazil, it is considered rude to be on time to a party

#23

Post by docker_up » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 4:16 AM UTC

matte_black wrote: post #17

Anecdotally I find that some of the most successful people I know are chronically late, but I’m not sure if they are late because they are successful or successful because they are always late. I’d wager it probably has to do with whatever your reason for being late is. Being late because you are trying to maximize productive time is different from being late due to carelessness or procrastination.

Anecdotally I have found the exact opposite. The most successful people I know value their time and consequently value other people's time as well, so they are always on time.

Re: In Brazil, it is considered rude to be on time to a party

#24

Post by jacobwilliamroy » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 4:23 AM UTC

"My impression as to your cheap labour was soon disillusioned when I saw your people at work. No doubt they are lowly paid, but the return is equally so; to see your men at work made me feel that you are a very satisfied and easy-going race who reckon time is no object. When I spoke to some managers they informed me that it was impossible to change the habits of a national heritage."

This excerpt appears in Ha-Joon Chang's book "Bad Samaritans" and it was written by an Australian consultant with regards to Japan in August 1915. Chang also mentions Sidney Gulick's 1903 book "Evolution of the Japanese" which also stereotypes the Japanese as "'easy-going' and 'emotional' people who possessed qualities like 'lightness of heart, freedom from all anxiety for the future, living chiefly for the present.'"

I don't have details on Brazil, but I am almost certain that this "Brazilian time" is just a symptom of some completely reversible, systemic problem that is making it difficult to do business with high-technologies in Brazil.

Re: In Brazil, it is considered rude to be on time to a party

#25

Post by foobarian » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 4:29 AM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #6

I don't think this is just a Brazilian thing. When I throw parties in the US nobody shows up until 30 mins after the start time, and the peak of people showing up is between 60 and 90 minutes after start time. The exception to this is dinner parties, where people are much more punctual because they know you're planning the meal timeline.

There is some etiquette involved. You don't want to be the first person there, just as you should avoid being the 'lingerer' who stays too long or even worse needs to be asked to leave explicitly.

Re: In Brazil, it is considered rude to be on time to a party

#26

Post by poulsbohemian » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 4:33 AM UTC

acchow wrote: post #8

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #6

I don't think this is just a Brazilian thing. When I throw parties in the US nobody shows up until 30 mins after the start time, and the peak of people showing up is between 60 and 90 minutes after start time. The exception to this is dinner parties, where people are much more punctual because they know you're planning the meal timeline.

If there's 20 people going to a party, does anyone think the "start time" is really when you're supposed to be there? I think of it more as "don't come before this time".

Depends on the culture. Historically if you told a German 5:00, that meant 5:00 - nor 4:59, not 5:01. "Fashionably late" is an American thing.

Re: In Brazil, it is considered rude to be on time to a party

#27

Post by poulsbohemian » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 4:35 AM UTC

jimmy1 wrote: post #18

I work with brazillians often, we have an office there. It's easy to accommodate as well -- I just do the same thing I do with my mother: tell her the start time is way earlier than it actually is, and then she is on time. For example if dinner is at 6:45, I tell her dinner is at 6:15, and expect her to arrive 30 minutes late. You have to tweak it a bit for different situations (for example, a meeting, is about -15,…

+1 pro move.

Re: In Brazil, it is considered rude to be on time to a party

#28

Post by Berunto » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 4:38 AM UTC

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #24

"My impression as to your cheap labour was soon disillusioned when I saw your people at work. No doubt they are lowly paid, but the return is equally so; to see your men at work made me feel that you are a very satisfied and easy-going race who reckon time is no object. When I spoke to some managers they informed me that it was impossible to change the habits of a national heritage." This excerpt appears in Ha-Joon C…

So how long does it take to change the mindset and behavior of a complete country? ~80 years?

Re: In Brazil, it is considered rude to be on time to a party

#29

Post by weregiraffe » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 4:46 AM UTC

saosebastiao wrote: post #22

I can at least vouch for the fact that Cariocas have a tough time adjusting to normal Anglo punctuality demands. As a Portuguese speaking student I ended up with quite a few Brazilian friends and many of the Cariocas ended up flunking out of school. Not because they were dumb or didn't work hard, but because they couldn't show up on time for tests and never understood why they couldn't just take a test two hours late…

>not dumb >never understood why they couldn't just take a test two hours late.

I see a contradiction here.

Re: In Brazil, it is considered rude to be on time to a party

#30

Post by aikinai » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 4:53 AM UTC

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #24

"My impression as to your cheap labour was soon disillusioned when I saw your people at work. No doubt they are lowly paid, but the return is equally so; to see your men at work made me feel that you are a very satisfied and easy-going race who reckon time is no object. When I spoke to some managers they informed me that it was impossible to change the habits of a national heritage." This excerpt appears in Ha-Joon C…

That’s fascinating! Does the book have any insight into how Japan made the complete 180° in I guess a few decades?

The Meiji Restoration was already incredible but I thought the work ethic was there throughout and helped make it possible. I had no idea there was also a revolution of work ethic.