HELP university college is a well-known college and it is not a surprise thing to see HUC with students from different countries with different cultures and believes. It is a great thing to get to know them and communicate with them. However, it is necessary to understand even a little bit of the culture before you actually do any communication because you might accidentally do something that you think it is OK but it is not OK to them.
I believe everybody would agree that time is precious but not everybody hold the same time concept. Thus, I would like to share with you on the different concept of time between Germans, Japanese and us Malaysians. To begin with the topic, I would like to divide people into two rough categories with respect to time: monochronic and polychronic people. Monochronic people tend to do one thing at a time, concentrate on the job at hand, take time commitments seriously and are concerned not to disturb others. They also tend to be rule followers, show great respect for private property, seldom borrow or lend and emphasize promptness. Polychronic is the opposite of monochronic people. Germans are totally monochronic because promptness are taken for granted in Germany. For example, in Germany if you arrive late by even a few minutes, no one will be impressed by your sales presentation, no matter how good it is. Indeed, they may not even wait around to hear it. Therefore, u have to call up if you think you will be late. Besides that, in Germany, historical backgrounds are important to them, that is why every books, articles, journals and talk begin with background informations and we might get irritated with that because we might ask " why don't they just get to the main point?"
Japanese have two modes: a monochronic mode for foreigners and technology and a polychronic mode for virtually everything else. The Japanese switch from an open system for those in their inner circle to a more closed and tightly scheduled system for outsiders. To an outsider everything in Japan is rigidly scheduled. They organize a visitor's time and present him with a full schedule upon arrival. However, as one comes to know the Japanese, one discovers another aspect of their time system-- flexibility. Now, lets talk about the time concept in our own country Malaysia, we receive an invitation stating 7PM sharp and it is still OK if we are late for half an hour because, " Haiyo, traffic jam mah", " Sorry, I forgot", "My dog died", "My toilet sumbat" and the list goes on. So it is OK to be late in Malaysia because you just have to shoot a reason and infact it is always late. Maybe Malaysian are polychronic people.
Japanese have two modes: a monochronic mode for foreigners and technology and a polychronic mode for virtually everything else. The Japanese switch from an open system for those in their inner circle to a more closed and tightly scheduled system for outsiders. To an outsider everything in Japan is rigidly scheduled. They organize a visitor's time and present him with a full schedule upon arrival. However, as one comes to know the Japanese, one discovers another aspect of their time system-- flexibility. Now, lets talk about the time concept in our own country Malaysia, we receive an invitation stating 7PM sharp and it is still OK if we are late for half an hour because, " Haiyo, traffic jam mah", " Sorry, I forgot", "My dog died", "My toilet sumbat" and the list goes on. So it is OK to be late in Malaysia because you just have to shoot a reason and infact it is always late. Maybe Malaysian are polychronic people.
As a conclusion, this is not to criticize or to compliment but to proof that cultures permeats all forms of communication and it is necessary to understand it influences to help you distinguish what is universal from what is relative because we do not want to piss the Germans off by getting late for 5minutes only. =)
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