Relating Reading to Experience: "Social Time, the Heartbeat of Culture" by Robert Levine and Ellen Wolff

Olga Osipova
Latvia
ESOL 400
Fall 2007

When I went to Italy as an Au Pair for the first time, one of the difficulties I had to face was adjusting to Italian pace of life. From my early years, I thought that punctuality was a sign of politeness and respect and that I always should be on time. I had heard about the Mediterranean lack of punctuality before, but I did not expect to have culture shock because of this "insignificant" difference between the Northern and Mediterranean perceptions of time.

Culture shock is what many people who travel abroad face, and it often causes misunderstanding among representatives of different cultures and wrong conclusions about the countries they visit. The culture shock that Robert Levine, author of “Social Time: The Heartbeat of Culture” experienced in Brazil led him to carry out research about the pace of life in different cultures.

Professor Robert Levine describes the situation in a Brazilian university when he was late for his class and therefore he “in panic … broke for the classroom,” but surprisingly he “arrived breathless to find an empty room” (p. 75). That shows that people are used to bringing their pace of life to a new country. I was in a similar situation when I had to pick up Anna, a girl I was taking care of, from kindergarten. Sometimes I realized that kindergarten would be closing soon, and I would run there in fear that I would be late and little Anna would be the last child left in the kindergarten. I was very surprised, though, to find that there were still many children whom parents had not picked up yet.

It is mentioned in the Robert Levine’s and Ellen Wolff’s article that “no dictionary clearly defines the meaning of ‘early’ or’ late’ ” (p. 75). It is also illustrated by their research, which shows how differently students in the American and Brazilian universities interpret such terms as “late” and “early” when Brazilian students considered 33 ½ minutes as “late”, while American students defined “late” as 19 minutes (p. 76). Every culture has its own understanding of such time terms. I personally experienced differences in understanding the term “soon” when I went to meetings with my Italian friend. In Italy my northern punctuality turned against me. I would come to a meeting and realize that my friend was late. Then she would call me and assure me that she was arriving “soon” – what I thought could be 15 minutes. Finally, she would arrive half an hour later that was beyond all my expectations. That made me quite angry. Similarly it made me angry when I was waiting for Elena, Anna’s mother, to return from work. I remember the first time I had to pick up Anna from kindergarten and spent a couple of hours waiting for her mum to come home. Elena told me that she would finish her work at 6 p.m. and come home “right after six.” The girl did not know me well yet and was asking for her mummy all the time. I assured her that her mum will come very soon. I impatiently waited for 6:30, the latest time I would expect Elena to be back. She arrived at 7:30. By that time the baby was crying and I was very nervous and angry at Elena. When I complained of why she did not tell me that she was going to be that late, Elena replied: “But I am not late! I returned after six, as I promised. I just took my time, and did some shopping.” I was so confused and thought that Elena was an irresponsible person, but as Robert Levine points out, “when we realize we are out of step, we often blame the people around us to make ourselves feel better.” That what was happening to me; I could not get the Italian time sense and that often irritated me, until I understood the reasons why Italians were not as punctual as northern people are.

After living some time in Italy, I realized that Italians do not consider being late as a sign of disrespect or lack of sense of responsibility. They rather see it as a sign of an unstressed person and a relaxed and positive way of life. After I realized it, I started to enjoy my time in Italy to the fullest. I did not stress any more because of being late and I did not blame people when they were late. In my opinion, Robert Levine and Ellen Wolff express a very important idea: that “appreciating cultural differences in time sense becomes increasingly important as modern communications put more and more people in daily contact. If we are to avoid misreading issues that involve time perceptions, we need to understand better our own cultural biases and those of others” (p.77). I think everyone who travels to different countries should listen to this advice and should never deny the pace of life of a country he or she is visiting, but try to understand it.