Punctuality

Punctuality

After realising the creeping in the Norwegian soul, Jiann Chyuan thinks it is wise to start to tell something good about Norwegians.


Now that I have got this love at first sight with the very unique Norwegian brown cheese, and am actually using Norwegian’s invention, the cheese slider, to slice cheese cube, and also doubling words in expression, I start to realise that the Norwegian soul has been slowly crept into my body.

After talking about the peculiarities of Norwegians, and also showed some dazzling naked Norwegian photos, it makes me wonder have I been stern to Norwegians. I pondered for a short instant. Indeed, I’ve been making a little unfair judgement about this tiny population in the world.

I dug into my impressions partition in my old rusty hard disk (my saturated brain), surprisingly, I manage to convince myself that Norwegians have actually more strengths than weaknesses. The foremost strength about this ethnic is their sensitivity to time.

Let’s first assume that you have an appointment with a Norwegian, please remember to present yourself at the agreed venue at the right time. If you are later than five-minute, the Norwegian may start to worry whether something nasty has happened to you. If you are later than ten-minute, tell you, the world is going to end for this Norwegian. He’ll take out his cell phone and calling insanely to every common friend he shares with you.

Why? This is because punctuality is not a bonus to Norwegian, but a habit that every Norwegian cultivates since tender age. Every Norwegian, and I mean every, will always on time to every appointment, lecture, date, meeting, etc, if they are not earlier.

The same theory applies, but with higher degree of certainty is, if a Norwegian you suppose to meet late to the meeting by five-minute, don’t hesitate, start calling until your cell phone bursts. There must be something awful happening at the other side.

And now, for Chinese, we should really feel embarrassed that we are always, which literally means every time, late to appointment. It is definitely highly unimaginable for Norwegian to imagine that a 2-hour delay in a Chinese wedding dinner in a five-class restaurant in Malaysia is undoubtedly common.

Well, it is unfair to just pinpointed Chinese as the only one that doesn’t have any sense in time. At least I found out that among all the international students, Asians are quite famous for being late. Thumbs up! Wait, the other way round. In order to maintain the self esteem of being an Asian, I have tried to present on time for every appointment and had earned some credits. Phew!

So why are Norwegians so punctual? I don’t know the exact reason. But I figured out there might be certain connection to the fact that clocks and clock towers are everywhere in Norway, at least in Trondheim. (Look at pictures)

Is it the constant time reminders provided by all these clocks that make Norwegian punctual? Or are all these clocks are being set up to remind foreigners to be punctual because we are in a land of punctuality? I don’t know. But one thing certain is, the clocks are all working.

Yes, they are all working, and accurately. It is just so hard for me to imagine how it is possible for every clock in every lecture room to be working all the time. Seriously, some maintenance workforce must has been recruited and specially trained in making sure batteries are never ran out for clocks.

The punctuality to time among Norwegians is certainly not only limited to individuals. The transport system in Norway definitely deserves compliments. Never later than the scheduled time is not the policy for buses in Trondheim, but a very crucial implementation. You deserve the right to claim the cab fee from bus company if bus late by 15-minute.

But there is something bad about punctuality. Shops and offices are really closing at the exact time! But wait a minute, isn’t Asians are also very good in this? Ah ha! We are not always late!