Narayan Núñez Blandón-Staff Writer

Among some American and international students, the phrases “American Time” and “International Time” play important roles when defining the importance of punctuality and time management. Sometimes, some international students arrive to meetings or events a little late. Such things do not necessarily mean that they do not care, but it merely shows that they have a different perception of time.

On the time perception spectrum, there are those that are time-oriented on one end, and those who are time-relaxed on the other end.  Whether students are time-oriented or time-relaxed depends heavily on their culture and how they were raised. In the United States, for example, society is time-oriented.

Junior Catherina De Hoop, administrative assistant and public relations major, agrees that the United States’ society considers time very important. She says that coming late to a meeting or activity is seen negatively because tardiness messes up other people’s schedules.

“People in the United States are very timely and schedule-oriented, their lives revolve around time and checking the clock,” said De Hoop.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, other counties have a different perception of time. For Nigerian junior, Deborah Tyokighir, punctuality became the hardest thing for acculturation when she moved to the United States to study.

“In Nigeria, if something starts at 10, you start getting ready at 10. And It works out because people planning the 10 o’clock thing know that people will not be there at 10,” Tyokighir said.

Tyokighir recognizes that in the professional world, however, punctuality is expected; nevertheless Nigerian society is not time-driven.

“We are not in a rush. We do not live by the clock. We are more casual, we are not in a rush like in the United States,” Tyokighir said.

Just like Nigeria, many Latin American countries have a flexible perception of time. Nicaraguan seniors,  Marcelo Largaespada and Olivia Gonzalez Yun, recognize that it is normal to expect people to not be on time.

“For our wedding (in Nicaragua) we put in the invitation cards that the wedding ceremony was going to begin at 4:00pm, and most people were there at four, but there were still a few people that were a little bit late, so I (walked down the aisle) like at 4:20pm,” said Gonzalez Yun.

Even in the professional world, Nicaraguans are time-relaxed. Largaespada, a business major, recognizes that there is a difference in time managing between Nicaraguan and the United States.

“You can expect for people to take their time. Deadlines are not necessarily super firm,” Largaespada said. “(People) take their time and they do things at their pace even if it is in a business content.”

Unlike the societies previously mentioned, other countries’ societies share qualities of both end of the time spectrum. South Korea provides an example in which society are neither time schedule nor time-relaxed, but a combination of both.

South Korean senior David Kim explains that South Koreans are time-oriented.

“If you get late two or three times, you cannot get an A; that’s why the (Korean) exchange students who are late to class start running. The Koreans are the only ones that run (here at Dordt College),” Kim said as he laughed.

Although punctuality is an important element in the South Korean society, such is not the case for time management. If a meeting is expected to start at 8:00am, people will be there on time; but if it is expected to finish at 9:00am, it might end fifteen minutes later than expected.

Kim believes that punctuality is a priority, but the duration of activities is not. “We have a starting point, but we don’t have a finishing time,” he said.

Culture shapes the way individuals perceive time. Possessing a different time perception than the majority does is not necessarily a negative thing. It simply means that we are all different and have different values. For some international students, it has been easy to adapt to the time-oriented society of the United States. For others, it is still a difficult process of adaptation.