Different attitudes to time中西方时间观念比较

The end !
Some scholars have used the round and line of the space concept to describe different concept of time.
Chinese as representative of the Asian concept of time is circular concepts Britain and the United States as representatives of the Western conceptห้องสมุดไป่ตู้of time is linear concept
M e e ting
In business meeting, 5 minutes late is OK in American. While in west culture, waiting is a waste of time. Americans have no tolerance to waiting too long. And the time spent in waiting may contain some massage. If some one want to be successful, he or she will not make others to wait. In China, if one is going to be late, no one will know how much time he or she will be late. In China, people are willing to wait. They believe that waiting can maintain good relationship. The time they spent on waiting may not contain much massage.
Representatives of polychromic time, monochromic time
Chinese people are more costumed to Polychromic-Time Chinese people used to do several things during a time
pa st
pre se nt
future
The use of time is divided into two categories : polychromic time, monochromic time
多元制时间 单一制时间
• polychromic time : seeing time as scattered, advocating to do many things at the same time. A lot of things can simultaneously reappear. • monochromic time : stressing to do one thing in a specific time, attaching importance to planning, organizing, acting straightforward, seeing time as a straight line separated, unrepeated.
While Americans are used to Monochromic-Time
Americans prefer to do one things at a time
Causing the cultural differences
• Asians use time more freely and flexibly, preferring to hanging the wording of uncertainty on the lips, such as "immediately“, "sometimes", "most of the day," “in a while", which makes Westerners puzzle. • In Western society where time is almost a commodity, it is real and valuable, which can be traded, saved, wasted, lost, borrowed and measured. • "Time is money" seems to have become the credo of Western life.
C la ss
In America, teacher could be late (at most for 20 minutes) and the students should wait for him or her. In China, students feel that the teachers bear the unshakable responsibility to arrive on time, or they will be absent in 10 minutes.
In China, the amount of time attributed to an activity is relatively flexible. For instance, Chinese do not hate the tendency of terminating an appointment before its natural conclusion, whereas America end the appointments at the appointed time and make way for the next one , according to schedules. Failure to do, they will be considered to be selfish and immoral. Chinese people place great value on one’s feelings and emotions. In other words, they are mainly concerned with the person involved instead of the appointed time. They don’t want to hurt others’ feelings.