WEEKEND-ENGAGEMENT TOPICS: WEEK 216/Are you usually late or early?

In general, each culture has a particular way of understanding reality and behaving towards it. The English, for example, have a reputation for being punctual. But as a lawyer I worked with told me a few years ago, the Swiss are the ones who are really punctual, which is why their watches are famous. For the Japanese it is important to be productive, so they must also be punctual.

But the culture that has influenced my behavior regarding time and punctuality is German. Why? Because my father was educated from a very young age in the German school in Caracas, until he finished elementary school. And German education is very disciplined. And that's how he educated us, his four daughters, with a lot of order and discipline, even though we live in a Caribbean country, where people, in general, are not punctual. I have been teaching for 30 years and most of my students have not been punctual. My three sisters are not disciplined or punctual. Although my father always was.

Punctuality has to do with the responsibility we have in front of certain commitments, study, work, with our loved ones. When we have the commitment to be at a certain time in a place, we must be there at the established time. That is why it is important to have an adequate organization of time, an agenda that allows us to be punctual with the commitments we have throughout the day.

Personally, at the beginning of each month I make an agenda of the already established commitments that I will have both personal and work, what day and at what time. Then I add those that come up. At the beginning of each day I review the commitments, confirm them and organize myself to be on time for those commitments. I usually arrive before the scheduled time. If for some reason I cannot be on time, I send a message to let you know that I will be late.

Most people in my country are not punctual. Often when I give classes or arrange a work meeting I wait 10 or 15 minutes, after that time I start the activity. When I taught at the Central University it was really annoying that after the class had started, several students who arrived late interrupted the class. To me that attitude seems irresponsible and disrespectful, but I could not forbid them to enter. The university regulations did not allow me to do so. It is a cultural problem. That is why those countries where there is a more organized, responsible and punctual mentality have a better quality of life than those countries where there is not.

I am a Spanish speaker, so I have had the support of Deepl.com in the English translation.