Where you are is when you are
Time is money.
From a young age, Americans have held this mindset when approaching their daily routines because to them, time is truly expensive.
In America, time is viewed in relation to money. Americans’ lives revolve around appointments, career salaries, and schedules, in which any doctor, lawyer, or software engineer can explain just how valuable time is.
This outlook can be traced back to the competition within the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries, where time was a tangible commodity. Industries had strict regimens and precise time allocations in order to produce the most income.
Americans even use the phrases “spend time,” “ save time,” and “waste time” to describe their irreplaceable time usage.
“I think our society is so centered around capitalism and the idea that every second of our day should be used to work toward success that time is now seen as a unit of money. We are trained to be like machines—to work and produce at the maximum efficiency, and if we delay even for a little bit, we will fall behind in life,” said Kaila Nishikawa, a junior who is Japanese.
Americans’ fast-paced, profit-oriented lifestyle is described by linear time, in which actions, conceptually, are viewed sequentially, with a past, present, and future. Americans see the past as over, the present as something that you can grasp in the now, and then incorporate plans from the present to worry about the future.
However, this is not true for all people.
The perception of time varies from each individual based on their individual culture and location. The pace of time is relative to the country’s lifestyle that its citizens live in.
American ideology, similar to the Netherlands and Switzerland for example, encourages to carry out actions one at a time within a fixed schedule so that they maximize their efficiency in order to be financially successful. These countries are classified as monochronic.
“I think a lot of America is focused on industrial output and revenue. Americans are very focused on a rigid routine to achieve this, and we even have a perception of the American Dream where earning the most amount of money is the least amount of time is idolized,” said Karan Gaglani, a junior who is Indian.
On the other hand, according to Business Insider, Southern Europeans are multi-active, in which the more they do, the more fulfilled they feel.
“Multi-active peoples are not very interested in schedules or punctuality. They pretend to observe them, especially if a linear-active partner or colleague insists on it, but they consider the present reality to be more important than appointments. In their ordering of things, priority is given to the relative thrill or significance of each meeting,” said Richard Lewis, an internationally renowned linguist who authored the award-winning book "When Cultures Collide," in a Business Insider article.
Another perspective that cultures have is polychronic. These cultures, which include many Asian and Latin American countries, revolve their lives around tradition and rural-based ideals, such as agricultural seasons or religious celebrations.
“In India, we are greatly focused on a sense of community, like our big festivals that focus on religion or agriculture,” said Gaglani. “We seem to value the past because our culture and ideals have been around for so long.”
Similarly, Spaniards, Italians, and Arabs tend to focus much of their lives on human interaction and authentic relationships. They value carrying out their conversations, even if it means missing prior engagements.
“In Italy, the pace of life is much more relaxed. Another example is mealtime—meals are served with multiple courses, and they can last for hours. When I was in Italy and eating with my relatives, meals would last for three to four hours because the food just kept coming, and the conversations never stopped, as being together is a celebration,” said English teacher Lisa Simpson.
In several Eastern cultures, as well as Asian cultures, citizens have embraced cyclic time, in which time is perceived as a constant cycle where the past is not regretted and the same opportunities will represent themselves in the future. Cyclic time also highlights how people always have time to pursue what they would like do and achieve.
“In these cultures, time is viewed neither as linear nor event–relationship related, but as cyclic. Each day the sun rises and sets, the seasons follow one another, the heavenly bodies revolve around us, people grow old and die, but their children reconstitute the process,” said Lewis.
The Japanese, for example, time perspective pulls from both cyclic time and linear time but mostly can be seen through tradition and properness.
“There are two ways that the Japanese view time: There is a fast-paced urgency to succeed and get things done, and there is the relaxed, traditional view that focuses on respecting and taking in the beauty around us,” said Nishikawa. “We try to focus on the elegance and courtesy through traditional events such as tea ceremonies, calligraphy, and walking through Japanese gardens.”
These time perceptions are also prevalent in the workplace, as a diverse mix of cultures are intermingled within corporations and must cooperate with one another.
In an article featured in the Harvard Business School, businessman Bhaskar Pant traces his own experiences with cultural time values.
“In order to get people from multiple cultures to meet an important deadline, appeal to what they value. If it’s maintaining good relationships, stress how failure to meet a deadline will damage relationships and result in loss of trust,” said Pant.
Despite these diverse backgrounds, students still believe that in high school, time should be valued and well managed as many must juggle the high school lifestyle full of homework, jobs, applications, and a social life.
“Even though we all come from different backgrounds, we all have similar types of paces of life here. However you want to approach your time is up to you, as long as it works for your life and what you want to achieve,” Gaglani said.
From a young age, Americans have held this mindset when approaching their daily routines because to them, time is truly expensive.
In America, time is viewed in relation to money. Americans’ lives revolve around appointments, career salaries, and schedules, in which any doctor, lawyer, or software engineer can explain just how valuable time is.
This outlook can be traced back to the competition within the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries, where time was a tangible commodity. Industries had strict regimens and precise time allocations in order to produce the most income.
Americans even use the phrases “spend time,” “ save time,” and “waste time” to describe their irreplaceable time usage.
“I think our society is so centered around capitalism and the idea that every second of our day should be used to work toward success that time is now seen as a unit of money. We are trained to be like machines—to work and produce at the maximum efficiency, and if we delay even for a little bit, we will fall behind in life,” said Kaila Nishikawa, a junior who is Japanese.
Americans’ fast-paced, profit-oriented lifestyle is described by linear time, in which actions, conceptually, are viewed sequentially, with a past, present, and future. Americans see the past as over, the present as something that you can grasp in the now, and then incorporate plans from the present to worry about the future.
However, this is not true for all people.
The perception of time varies from each individual based on their individual culture and location. The pace of time is relative to the country’s lifestyle that its citizens live in.
American ideology, similar to the Netherlands and Switzerland for example, encourages to carry out actions one at a time within a fixed schedule so that they maximize their efficiency in order to be financially successful. These countries are classified as monochronic.
“I think a lot of America is focused on industrial output and revenue. Americans are very focused on a rigid routine to achieve this, and we even have a perception of the American Dream where earning the most amount of money is the least amount of time is idolized,” said Karan Gaglani, a junior who is Indian.
On the other hand, according to Business Insider, Southern Europeans are multi-active, in which the more they do, the more fulfilled they feel.
“Multi-active peoples are not very interested in schedules or punctuality. They pretend to observe them, especially if a linear-active partner or colleague insists on it, but they consider the present reality to be more important than appointments. In their ordering of things, priority is given to the relative thrill or significance of each meeting,” said Richard Lewis, an internationally renowned linguist who authored the award-winning book "When Cultures Collide," in a Business Insider article.
Another perspective that cultures have is polychronic. These cultures, which include many Asian and Latin American countries, revolve their lives around tradition and rural-based ideals, such as agricultural seasons or religious celebrations.
“In India, we are greatly focused on a sense of community, like our big festivals that focus on religion or agriculture,” said Gaglani. “We seem to value the past because our culture and ideals have been around for so long.”
Similarly, Spaniards, Italians, and Arabs tend to focus much of their lives on human interaction and authentic relationships. They value carrying out their conversations, even if it means missing prior engagements.
“In Italy, the pace of life is much more relaxed. Another example is mealtime—meals are served with multiple courses, and they can last for hours. When I was in Italy and eating with my relatives, meals would last for three to four hours because the food just kept coming, and the conversations never stopped, as being together is a celebration,” said English teacher Lisa Simpson.
In several Eastern cultures, as well as Asian cultures, citizens have embraced cyclic time, in which time is perceived as a constant cycle where the past is not regretted and the same opportunities will represent themselves in the future. Cyclic time also highlights how people always have time to pursue what they would like do and achieve.
“In these cultures, time is viewed neither as linear nor event–relationship related, but as cyclic. Each day the sun rises and sets, the seasons follow one another, the heavenly bodies revolve around us, people grow old and die, but their children reconstitute the process,” said Lewis.
The Japanese, for example, time perspective pulls from both cyclic time and linear time but mostly can be seen through tradition and properness.
“There are two ways that the Japanese view time: There is a fast-paced urgency to succeed and get things done, and there is the relaxed, traditional view that focuses on respecting and taking in the beauty around us,” said Nishikawa. “We try to focus on the elegance and courtesy through traditional events such as tea ceremonies, calligraphy, and walking through Japanese gardens.”
These time perceptions are also prevalent in the workplace, as a diverse mix of cultures are intermingled within corporations and must cooperate with one another.
In an article featured in the Harvard Business School, businessman Bhaskar Pant traces his own experiences with cultural time values.
“In order to get people from multiple cultures to meet an important deadline, appeal to what they value. If it’s maintaining good relationships, stress how failure to meet a deadline will damage relationships and result in loss of trust,” said Pant.
Despite these diverse backgrounds, students still believe that in high school, time should be valued and well managed as many must juggle the high school lifestyle full of homework, jobs, applications, and a social life.
“Even though we all come from different backgrounds, we all have similar types of paces of life here. However you want to approach your time is up to you, as long as it works for your life and what you want to achieve,” Gaglani said.