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The last thing I want to talk about with regards to social differences that you need to be
aware of when you're dealing with people from other cultures is time. And what I'm talking
about with regards to time is primarily has to do with punctuality. Here in America, it's
what we strive for, what is indicative of our culture is to be on time or sometimes
on time means five minutes early. But in many, many cultures, being on time means ten minutes
late. If we're supposed to meet at 2:00, then on time is 2:10 or 2:15 and some cultures
it's even later than that. But it's real important that you follow the culture's cultural differences
with regards to time. But you want to make sure you know what you're talking about. If
you have a business meeting at 2:00, that's really not going to start until 2:15 because
that's what's indicative of that culture. You might want to still be there at 2:00 because
that's, you want to be there. What you have to not do is get upset when
the other group of people shows up at 2:15. It also has to do with the length of time.
Here in America, a business lunch for us is an hour. In other cultures, a business lunch
might be three hours. So be real aware of the time sensitivity of the culture that you're
going to be working with.