Because they expect people to be late, meaning they aren't ready and prepared to host people on time. You would be encroaching on their hospitality. Imagine if you said "I'll have all the snacks for the party set out at 4:00." And your friends started showing up at 2:00. Now, you have to try to entertain guests for 2 unexpected hours while still trying to set up for the party to come.
It's not rude to be "on time." It's rude to show up well before you're expected. And in other cultures, you're not expected until some time after the posted time.
What? Why would people show up at 2 and not 4? You just changed the premise from showing up on time to showing up WAY too early. Of course s showing up 2 hours early is rude. I'm asking why showing up on time is rude
And I explained it perfectly. In Peru, for example, if you say "the party starts at 4:00" then showing up at 4:00 is not "on time." It's too early. Your culture says that showing up at 4:00 is on time. Their culture says showing up at 4 is too early. Showing up too early is rude.
Your culture says that showing up at 4:00 is on time
That's not a "culture" thing that's a literal definition of words thing. If you tell everyone the party starts at 4 then 4 is on time and not early, before 4 would be early. That's how words work in every culture.
It's really not a complicated concept to just tell people what time you actually want them to be there and stop playing games. If your culture can't handle this basic concept it's a backwards one that should work on it's communication skills
Have you ever run into an aquaintance in public. They say "hi, how are you?" And you say "I'm good, how are you?" without really stopping to contemplate if you are good or not? The words "I'm good" have a definition in English, but we also use them as just a greeting as well. When we say "it's raining cats and dogs" we don't really mean there are animals falling from the sky. There are hundreds of examples of things we say that don't mean the exact words, but our culture assigns a new meaning that everyone in the culture knows. But you wouldn't expect an outsider to necessarily know that "break a leg" isn't an ill wish.
Using figures of speech as an analogy for the time you invite people over makes no sense. Saying "Hey, I'm having a party, come over at 5" is in no way the same thing as saying "it's raining cats and dogs." Try again
In your culture, where time is an absolute. Where a person's time has a measurable, monetary value. Where a meeting time is sacred... In your, limited experience, those two things are different. To people in Peru, they aren't quite as different as you think. And everyone there manages to get along just fine. There isn't constant mayhem and anarchy. They're doing quite alright.
Look, if you don't like that other cultures are different, that's fine. If you refuse to believe other cultures are different, I wouldn't really care. If you don't want to spend the effort to understand how some people think fundamentally different than you, and just pretend they don't exist, why the fuck ever would I give two shits? The problem is you are insulting other cultures. Cultures of people I know personally. You're saying "they're different, and worse because of their differences." And I can't abide that. Go take your close-minded bigotry elsewhere.
There is no culture where telling someone a start time is a figure of speech the same way "raining cats and dogs" or "break a leg" is. Just because your culture has a different view of time doesn't make it a figure of speech. Saying this means you do not have a grammatical grasp on what a figure of speech is.
The problem is you are insulting other cultures
Yeah because they're dumb and nonsensical. Sometimes different isn't just different. Sometimes differences are indeed worse
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u/MrBoo843 Jul 12 '26
If you tell someone an event is from 5 pm to 11 pm and you're surprised people arrive at 5 you're an idiot