The Egyptians have a strong sense of time, right?

The Egyptians’ concept of time is often a headache.

If the Egyptians say: "Wait a minute, 5 minutes", it means half an hour; if they say "half an hour", then you have to be prepared - it is basically not possible on the same day. It may be that the Egyptians are aware of this problem and are preparing to improve work efficiency. Recently, they often say: "Wait a minute, 1 second" in some small matters. This means that they are very sure that the battle can be over within 5 minutes.

There is a classic joke circulating among Chinese people in Egypt - one must follow the "IBM law" when dealing with locals. IBM is the English transliteration abbreviation of three commonly used Arabic sentences: "As the Lord wishes (hopefully)", "Tomorrow" and "No problem".

"As the Lord wills" is originally an Islamic religious term, which expresses the affirmative tone of the future tense in modern Arabic. It is difficult for Chinese people to understand this and they often require a definite answer from the other party. But the Egyptians believe that people are powerless in front of the omnipotent God, so no matter how important the matter is, the Egyptians still use this phrase when they answer. This has also become an excuse for many Egyptians not to be punctual.

"Tomorrow" and "No problem" are also words that Egyptians repeat very frequently. They often swear that it will be done tomorrow, but in the end they often make people wait for more time.