Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 381 posts

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

#91

Post by squarefoot »

nasredin wrote: post #34
foobarian wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why don't you want to be the first person? I've heard of "fashionably late", never anything about "early". IME early bird gets all the good nachos. And you can leave earlier.

"Why don't you want to be the first person?"

In some cultures appearing a busy person can be important. Showing early to a party could send the message you had nothing to do before. Not that i like or do that, but some people could pay attention to such details.

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

#92

Post by zhdc1 »

aikinai wrote: post #30
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.

Education. The Japanese Empire was one of the first, if not first, nation in the world to have mandatory schooling that was accessible by a large majority of it's population.

They beat the Brits by about a decade.

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

#93

Post by [deleted] »

pdyck wrote: post #78
poulsbohemian wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In Germany it's the same for parties or meeting with friends. If it is work-related most people tend to be on time.

[deleted]

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

#94

Post by CalRobert »

nasredin wrote: post #34
foobarian wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why don't you want to be the first person? I've heard of "fashionably late", never anything about "early". IME early bird gets all the good nachos. And you can leave earlier.

I think early bird is best reserved for close friends of the host. I invite close friends, somewhat-close friends, and maybe tangential friends (that neighbor who seems nice but I don't really know well) to parties, and if it's the last group who shows up first conversation flows less smoothly.

Also if you're first, be ready to help set up!

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

#95

Post by coldtea »

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…

>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.

Or inversely, it's a western problem that makes it difficult to live humanely and stress-free and incurs great human toll -- and at the point when we're so technologically advanced to not need it as much (but are great at creating busywork for ourselves).

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

#96

Post by fritkot »

acchow wrote: post #86
poulsbohemian wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I just don't understand how this works at a house party. You invite 20 people over for a BBQ at 2pm. Here's possible conversations I can envision in America: "Thanks for the invite! I actually have a haircut appointment at 2, but I'll come right after" or "Thanks for the invite, but I have a a haircut appointment at 2..." "what? No worries! Come join whenever you can; we want to see you!" "Great. I will thanks!" So h…

This doesn't happen. People are just applying stereotypes to every possible context and situation. Germans are perfectly capable of coming to a BBQ later than the scheduled start time, although it's true that unless it's impossible for them to make their schedule fit with yours, if you tell them 5, then 5 it is.

Because of this, I would say it's even more important to schedule things sufficiently ahead of time. Making up plans only 2 or 3 days in advance, when weekend plans are mostly settled and they can't properly schedule around your event, will just stress people out.

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

#97

Post by mFixman »

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.

Cultural norms are different for different kind of events.

In the US and most of the West, it's expected to be okay to be around one hour late for big house parties. However, Americans wouldn't normally be late for job interviews or other important events in a set time, which is completely normal in Latin America.

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

#98

Post by pjmlp »

godzilla82 wrote: post #45
poulsbohemian wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Just curious if the German trait you mentioned you have witnessed first hand or hearsay?

Yes, but there is also a difference between using um and ab regarding punctuality, so better take care when writing invitations. :)

Having lived in both countries, I would say our Swiss neighbors are even more stringent regarding punctuality.

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

#99

Post by coldtea »

zhdc1 wrote: post #92
aikinai wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Education. The Japanese Empire was one of the first, if not first, nation in the world to have mandatory schooling that was accessible by a large majority of it's population. They beat the Brits by about a decade.

Yep. Mass education (as opposed to high end elite education) can turn a nation of free people into slaves (or, as Japanese call it, 社畜: corporate livestock). After a century of that, they're losing their collective will to live, too [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aging_of_Japan

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

#100

Post by lucb1e »

> I used to have a boss that would call us from home saying he was caught in traffic but would be there soon, but we could actually hear his shower running!

Wait but that's not just being "oh look how cool and laid-back we are here", that's just lying. He's not caught in unexpected traffic, he's just running late.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but it seems objectively worse than agreeing to a time and then being there. With this system, you agree to a time and then have to know unspoken rules. Why not just speak the rules? Because then we're back to the "not so relaxed" actual time. But unspoken rules will always catch some people by surprise, either because they are not from the region, their family has different practices, whatever, but it will mess things up sooner or later. I can't imagine hospitals, courts, or other vital components of society are happy with the attitude, either, and while it says that people try to be on time for business meetings (I assume one's surgery would fall in the same category), I imagine that some of the attitude still shows and things are less efficient because of it. I wonder if this system will still hold up when the country develops further.

Post reply on HN