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Comment by TillE | Hacker News Reader

It's hard to tell what perspective this article is written from. There are many subjective qualifiers. For example:

> Americans place considerable value on punctuality.

From a German perspective, this is wildly untrue.

Germany is the only place I've ever lived where a couple will sit in their car outside their friends house for 10 minutes (having arrived 10 minutes early, of course) in order to be precisely on time.

As I recall, we'd consistently horrify them with our American-ness by walking out to their car to invite them in early.

As a member of a Russian family I have done this many a time. Maybe its just my parents though.

America isn't the most punctual culture, but there are plenty of cultures that are much more casual about lateness, including some Middle Eastern, South American, and African cultures. Most Americans brush off as much as 15 minutes of tardiness, but in some cultures, 30-60 minutes isn't uncommon. The German student who consistently shows up a few minutes early may be annoyed that fellow students show up a few minutes late, but a South American student who shows up 45 minutes late is going to be immediately branded as lazy or unserious.

At least here in brazil, where punctuality is generally disregarded, classes start on time (at most 5min tolerance) and people arriving 45min late to a scheduled appointment shouldn't expect to find anything waiting for them.

At the same time, social events in general happen always an hour or so later than announced, except for small gatherings and things with a fixed timeframe such as going to the movies. As a naturally punctual person I've arrived in birthday parties thinking I was being fashionably late and found everybody still pre-shower and the place a mess.

IST: "Indian Standard Time"

When a family member invites us over for 7:30, they mean 8:00. If you actually arrive at 7:30, they're still getting ready themselves.

Even Indians in US adhere to the IST...Most indian parties start atleast an hour after the scheduled time!

Oh I should've mentioned that I'm in the states. I believe that it's a full hour in India.

There are even sub-sub-culture examples. Rovers (http://www.rovers.com.au/) for instance have RAT: Rover Adjusted Time, which is approximately "the next x.30 to occur after the start time" and which is compensated for by the "car park meeting" that occurs after the event is over.

It wouldn't be notable except for HOW often they both occur in a pair.

IST sounds friggin awesome, at least compared to MST (Mexican Standard Time). We've had guests invited for 8:00 arrive at 10:30.

Place value != arrive on time

I know I'm doing something wrong when I'm late. Yet I'm sometimes late anyway.

I think Germans are the ONLY exception to the rule. Of course, someone will provide a counter example, I'm sure :)

Japanese.... In Japan being late is seen as seriously wrong.

Austria, Switzerland, all or most of Scandinavia...Probably most or all central/north/north western European societies.

IIRC Australia is also the same.

All of your examples are Germanic cultures. Notably, I think this is true in the German speaking part of Switzerland, but not nearly as much in Suisse Romande.

Most of Central Europe is Slavic.

I'll bet it's the same in Russia and many other Slavic countries.

Really? Huh. I guess. Being someone with ADD I've stopped stressing about being consistently 5 minutes late, but I guess you're right, people are/were disproportionately upset with it until they've come to know me for a while and know I'm often like this.

Although sometimes it backfires and they get more annoyed because "Can't you fix that if you know it happens every time?"

No, you fuckwit, if I could reliably fix it I would have. It's not for lack of trying, so back the fuck off!

Swiss :D

how else will they make use of all those fancy and accurate watches then?

Swiss people.

Swiss, as others have said. My cousins picked me up at the train station in Interlaken, having driven there from Berne. I saw them drive into the parking lot up the street. Counting the time it took them to walk from the parking lot to the train station entrance, they arrived within 60 seconds of the agreed-upon time.

Not to mention the clockwork nature of their transportation system... And the Alps... gah, what I am doing sitting at this desk?

I'm not sure it is "untrue" (in the sense that Americans do not place considerable value on punctuality), unless Austrian society is significantly different than German in that matter - in my experience the emphasis on punctuality is about the same in both cultures.

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