ESL Teacher

I know that you can’t stereotype nationalities because even with general traits, there are always many exceptions to the rule. But when it comes to being on time to class, I can certainly give a few stereotypes that ring true in at least 90% of my experience.

In Japan, nearly all the students came on time – sometimes high school teenagers were late, and some people arrived really early – but in general being late was pretty rare, and only a matter of a couple of minutes.

In Slovakia, there is no stereotype. I remember an 8.00am class I had in suburban Bratislava. One guy would be there at twenty to eight when I arrived. A woman usually showed up at ten to. Probably nobody arrived at exactly eight. And then the rest would stream in at any time up to nine o’clock.

In Germany, my students were the epitome of punctuality. At first, I wondered if the students were all meeting somewhere nearby at a prearranged time and then coming to class at the minute before the starting time in a large group – but I soon learned that they are just all absolutely punctual. And I have to say, as a teacher, that makes life really easy.

In Australia, I teach students of many nationalities. But it’s usually true that if some of the students are late, it’s rather likely that it’s the Brazilians. They tell me they work on Brazilian time and that’s a lot different to Australian time. What can I say?

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