My wife and I are stuck in this pattern where we're constantly late to my Korean in-laws' family gatherings but we can't talk about the real reason which is that my wife needs way more time to get ready and feel presentable than either of us want to admit, and now my mother-in-law makes these comments about respect and punctuality that we both just absorb in silence.
More people experience this than they realize.
The collision between personal rhythms and cultural time expectations creates a silence that compounds the original problem.
“Where Are You with East Asian time and face-saving?”
If this sounds familiar, the Library can help you find the bigger picture.