121–130 of 381 posts
Reminds me a lot of Thailand. We call it "Thai time". And it does seem to be worse in Bangkok than in rural areas. Despite the terrible traffic and resulting delays, Bangkokians are used setting out for a party at the time the party is supposed to start, thus arriving an hour or more late.
Maybe this has to do with not wanting to arrive at a party that's still empty.
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 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 thi…
More laid-back countries are also more laid-back about "lying" about such a thing. It's just a polite way to say you're running late. Nobody cares whether it's actually the traffic or not. It's like saying to someone "you look nice in this shirt" when they don't.
Not sure if that's just a Dutch thing, but I would care as to why someone is late. There isn't an accident on the same road every day, so traffic can be a legit reason to be late; having forgotten to set an alarm clock, however, is totally someone's own fault (under normal circumstances, of course).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
"Mother Fucking Swiss" is a legendary post, and very reflective of experiencing swiss-german people: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/11pcs1/while_i_l...
There is a relatively old Swiss movie that plays with them. Available only in French and German versions.
> 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 thi…
It's similar in southern European countries, although to a lesser extent, so it's very likely it'll remain.
I hope you all remember that Brazil is too big to assume that everyone is the same, thus everyone will be late to all appointments. It happens a lot, yes. But be careful to label people in advance. Many (!) Brazilians work overseas, including in Germany, and I'm sure those are not late as the article suggests for example :) Also, what would be crazy for many people that live in small countries compared to Brazil, is…
My example: I'm Portuguese but have lived in Denmark for quite a few years now, in Denmark I'm about as punctual as everyone else around here (which is mostly punctual, not as much as Germans though, who tend to show up before the agreed time) but when I'm visiting down south, I go back to the standard of showing up a little after the agreed time.
In other words: when in Rome do as the Romans do.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
"Mother Fucking Swiss" is a legendary post, and very reflective of experiencing swiss-german people: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/11pcs1/while_i_l...
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…