Postcard from Bishkek

I was intrigued the other day when an acquaintance pointed me towards an article about how different cultures around the world conceive the concept of time.

I was already familiar with some of the ideas expressed in it … but I found much of interest in the way that the author brought it all together – some of the examples were new and the diagrams helped to bring the points home.  (The say that “a picture is worth a thousand words”!).

There was fact, for example, that we, (Westerners), tend to think in terms of time as linear …passing from the past, through the present to the future with the future “ahead” of us – whereas another culture sees time as linear BUT with the past in “front” of us … because we can “see” it, it is a known factor even if some of it is obscured from out view, with the future “behind” us … we cannot see it or know what is in store for us.  On the other hand more more oriental view of time is of a series of cycles, similar circumstances differing in particulars, and like an eddy in a whirlpool takes us past the same spot time and time again as we descend into the depths.

Then there was the different approaches to time in the different psychologies – how some people’s see time as a limited resource which can be “spent” either “productively” or “wasted” on some activities … whilst other cultures see the activities as part of a complex package – not in splendid isolation – which have to be weighed one against the other.  The time spent in building relationships can be more important than that spent in pursuing a single “goal” or achieving a particular task.

There was a hint about how “tomorrow never comes” … how the Spanish have a word Mañana which means tomorrow – but can simply be a delaying tactic … not actually meaning “tomorrow” but some nebulous time “in the future“.  Tomorrow never comes because tomorrow, it will be today and tomorrow will be the day after, and when that “tomorrow” arrives, it will once again be today and tomorrow will be the day after.

As an example, Last week I asked Andy to do a task – and on Monday he said … “Not today, I’m tired, I’ll do it tomorrow” … on Tuesday he said “Not today, I am working for my exams, I’ll do it tomorrow”, Wednesday, there was another reason to say “Not today, … , I’ll do it tomorrow”, and yet another reason on Thursday.  It was at that point that “I lost my rag” … and said. “Enough, already! Today!”

Don’t misunderstand me … there’s nothing wrong with putting something off until later – if there is a good reason for it, (you’ll have gathered, however, that I wasn’t entirely convinced by his reasons), – but it shouldn’t be done of course, or habit.  We need to take into account the importance and urgency, (the time scale and deadlines), how it interrelates with other tasks and so on, how things in the future might have an impact on it … and so on.

In principle, however, there is some logic in the maxim “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today!” … if only to ensure that they are not forgotten or overlooked.

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In the past I have commented on the fact that people here seem to have a different concept of time that we are used to in the West … and how we used to have a series of running jokes here in the office:

One of them relates to the Russian Schass! which seems to be derived from the Russian word for “Now”, Seichass, but is used in a number of different ways and can mean anything from the list:

• now,
• just a moment,
• in a minute,
• in a few minutes,
• soon,
• … (almost any time interval you care to mention)

… and when someone says they’ll be somewhere at a particular time, (say ten o’clock), I have been known to sarcastically point out when they arrive an hour late that it is indeed the appointed time in Tashkent – where there is a one hour time difference from us here in Bishkek.  (People have a habit of turning up late for meetings – I have even been to a meeting when twenty minutes after the appointed starting time, the chairman has called us to order and said: “We are still waiting for a few people to arrive – so let’s make a start in, say, ten minutes.”

To be honest, I have to admit that I am also sometimes late … this has sometimes led to a cxomment along the lines of: it’s just another sign that I have “gone native” and become “half Kyrgyz” after 19 years here … but, I think have to admit that it’s more to do with poor organization.  When a meeting is some distance away then I try to leave in plenty of time to get there … but when it is nearby, then I tend to find myself thinking, “it won’t take me long to get there – so I’ve got enough time to do this little job … ” but, typical of Murphy’s Law (or, as it is known here – Zakon Podlostniy - ”if something can go wrong, it will”) and its various corollaries, things never go according to plan and I discover that I need just a little more time than I had anticipated … resulting in a mad rush to get to the meeting.

There is another cliche – proverb – that “it never rains – it pours”; (or, to put it in a more picturesque way, that Buses “always seem to come in threes” – irrespective of what the timetable says.  (There is actually a mathematical theory to explain this phenomenon … and even a book!).   It is also true that problems that need my attention always seem to appear just as I am about to leave for a meeting and I have to make a choice as to which should take priority. Often, the problem is deemed more important as it is immediate, here and now, and arriving at a meeting late loses the vote …

… or that they have to go somewhere and they’ll be back in a short while, (say, five minutes), I have been known to ask, “Is that Japanese time?, German time?, British time?, Russian time?, Kyrgyz time?  or (I won’t mention the last nationality) time?”.  When they ask what the difference is, I reply: “Well, Japanese time is more or less “on the dot” perhaps plus or minus a couple of minutes, whereas German time is plus or minus five minutes; British – plus or minus ten minutes; Russian – plus or minus an hour; Kyrgyz – sometime that day and …, [the unnamed nationality], – you’ll be lucky!”

Incidentally, I do appreciate that this is based on stereotypes … and borders on racism … but in my defense I would like to point out that it’s actually based on real incidents and certain individuals … Indeed, the first few times I cracked the “witticism” I actually used these people’s names … but as my audience often  had no idea who these people were, I moved on to these generalizations.

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The article is very interesting,  thought provoking and well worth a read … even if little in it is “new”.  Like the time spent on building relationships, I think that even if all it does is remind one of things we already knew and provide a framework to try to put it into context – it is not time “wasted”.

One of the most important lessons, however, (IMHO – it seems to me), is the importance of remembering that other people see things in different ways than we do … and if we are to understand each other and work together to help make the world a better place for each of us, (to our mutual benefit), then instead of standing on our dignity and assuming that we are “right”, and that everyone else is “wrong”, we need to put ourselves “in the other person’;s shoes”; to try and see how they see the situation; the issues as they perceive them; to try and understand their motivations, decisions and actions.

Apart from helping us to avoid misunderstandings and causing unintentional offence, I think it helps us to be more constructive and positive in our approach to potential problems and difficult situations.

 

 

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