sexta-feira, 15 de fevereiro de 2008

Caught somewhere in time

Hello, there!

After more than 7 months in Norway and having problems related to that, I believe it is time to talk about a small detail that tells a lot about a country and it's characteristics: punctuality!

Back home, it is normal to get to classes five minutes late. Most of the teachers won't get bothered by such small thing. There are some teachers, that arrive to classes after the students!
If I am late 5, 10, 15 to a meeting with a friend, it won't be a problem at all! He/she knows I will arrive, sooner or later!
Usually, I am late to school everyday! 5 or 10 minutes, I am late! no matter how hard I try, I will be late! Now, you can ask: "Why don't you leave your place 5 or 10 mins earlier?" Well, if I do that, I will loose my time with something insignificant I will find along the way! It is something stronger than me!=P

Here in Norway, things are a BIT different. people are punctual! They arrive at the time they were meant to. If they, by some reason, will arrive later than they should, they will warn a person, even though it is an informal meeting! A coffee, a drink, a dinner...Norwegian people will be there on time! "3 o'clock, sharp!" means really really sharp!
However, they are not as punctual as the Germans! Germans are always in time, wherever they go! And it is really hard for them to deal with people that tend to arrive to meetings later than they should... I have a German teacher, you can figure the rest! It was horrible for her my lack of punctuality and for me her extreme punctuality! now, after some months, we managed to understand and go over such aspect, since it is nothing more than a cultural characteristic!

Hadet bra!

2 comentários:

Anónimo disse...

yeah i support flexibility. i believe no one wants to be late but it happens somehow. leaving us guilty for a teeny weeny bit...some certain class in the States, showing up 3 seconds after the bell ring is considered late! hope 'twas just a joke! for up to an hour, traditional Thai wouldn't even take it too seriously. i mean we do get angry about it..but not much enough.. :q

Unknown disse...

como eu te compreendo meu amigo, como eu simaptizo com o teu problema de pontualidade... até porque eu sofro do mesmo :D ja nao consigo chegar ao trabalho a horas quanto mais às aulas... mas estou a tentar melhorar essa minha falha... se bem que no outro dia fiz por acordar mais cedo para tenatr chegar a horas ao meu trabalho e para espanto meu nao cheguei os ja muitos habituais 5 minutos atrasado, mas sim 10 minutos!!! o que me levou a crer que a minha rotina está impecável e que é capaz de ser mais facil alterar o relogio de ponto lá no trabalho!!
há e nao escrevi em ingles porque nao me apeteceu :P alem disso "tuga" esta na moda ;)
e despeço-me com um fica bem!! que deve andar perto do teu "Hadet bra!"