Say Anything to Anyone, Anywhere: 5 Keys To Successful Cross-Cultural Communication

Chapter 13

Multicultural Time Expectations

In Time, on Time, or out of Time?

The way in which different cultures relate to time can be a real challenge when you’re trying to organize productive interactions between them. The first thing to keep in mind is that most countries outside the United States use the 24-hour clock (referred to as military time in the United States) instead of the 12-hour clock. For example, 7:00 PM would be written as 19:00. Another factor is that being in time, on time, or out of time doesn’t mean the same to everyone—despite the fact that we all have the same 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours a day, and 365 days a year.

Time is like a bank. We are credited with 480 minutes in an 8-hour workday and 1,440 minutes in an entire 24-hour day each morning. And each night we write off as a loss what time we don’t invest in good purpose. We can’t carry any balance forward, and time allows for no overdraft.

So think about how you would feel if you received $480 (a dollar for every minute in an 8-hour workday) every morning—and lost every penny of the amount you had failed to use effectively every evening?

This loss is wholly yours. There is no going back or drawing against tomorrow. You must live on and invest in today’s deposit to get the most out of life. When it comes to the time bank, no one wants to be in the red! Time is a gift—a valuable commodity, whether we are working or playing. How you use the gift of time determines how valuable ...