Chronos and Kairos

“But, Thomas, we won’t get depressed will we?” asked one of my better students in almost perfect English.

I gave her a rye smile in return.

“Well…” I started, with a pause giving me time to think. We would be discussing the difference between two forms of the future tense: ‘will’ and ‘to be + going to’. I had thought it would be a good idea putting this into practice by telling each other our New Year Resolutions. ‘Will’ could be used for something they would be 100% sure of doing in 2008 and ‘going to’ could be followed by a plan they had for the New Year.

Later on we would use these New Year resolutions to practice what Unit 11 of our Grammar Book calls ‘Commenting on the past (the future in the past)’. We would magically travel in time to the 8th of January 2009 and look back at these resolutions. So, for example they would have to construct phrases like “I said that I would start learning French” or “I thought that I was going to travel to Amsterdam”. Perfect class plan.

My student of course didn’t know this yet so I replied “This depends on your resolutions.” Unit 11 had however nothing to do with the question she had asked, so I followed up my answer knowing exactly where she was getting at: “But don’t worry, you won’t get depressed, that was only one class and I will not let it happen again.” All students sighed in relief and I could continue with the class, although I did think back to that fateful class where all of my five students banged their heads on the table shouting in Spanish Mi vida es una mierda “I have a shit life” and something else similar to “Is it all worth it?”

So, what happened?

I had found a nice and interesting text in the Headway Intermediate Student book of English. The article was about time and at the beginning of the class I had written the following word on the blackboard: kairological time. Blatantly trying to impress them with this word I looked around the classroom and waited for some sort of reaction. There came none. Waiting for that spark to kick off the class I encouraged them by saying: “by the end of the class you will know what this means!” My excitement was not immediately returned, but I knew for a fact that it would be interesting.

To start things off I asked them to think of a normal day and write down for example: At seven o’clock I get up and have a shower. At nine o’clock I arrive at work. At eleven o’clock I have a coffee, etc. The point was that they had to use the present simple for habitual actions. As I gleefully listened to their answers I knew this class was going exactly where I was hoping it would be going.

On the blackboard I made a list of all their phrases. All of them concerned more or less the same. Getting up, breakfast, going to work, having lunch, going to a meeting, driving home, and finally going to bed. “You, beauty,” I thought, “I will get my message across, of this I am sure.”

After this exercise we read the text which was about Time. It had various interesting observations in it. For example, it discussed how various civilizations valued time. The Thai Karen tribe, you see, measures time in distance. The Karen always know where they are, when they are, how far they are from sunset or home: for time and distance are connected in the Karen language. Therefore, if you would ask a Karener about the time of sunset they would say: “Oh, about three kilometers away” (thank heavens nobody asked how it was that the Karen had knowledge of the metric system) because the only way of traveling is to walk, which takes a known length of time.

However, the piece de resistance would be saved for the end of the text. For there, the difference would be explained between the two Greek gods of Time Kronos and Kyros. We read together:

Gods of Time

The ancient Greeks had different gods for time’s different aspects. One of the most important was Chronos, who gives his name to absolute time, linear, chronological and quantifiable. But the Greeks had another, far more slippery and colourful, god of time, Kairos. Kairos was the god of timing, of opportunity, of chance and mischance, of different aspects of time. Time is qualitative. If you sleep because the clock tells you it’s way past your bedtime that is chronological time: whereas if you sleep because you’re tired, that is kairological time. If you eat biscuits when you’re hungry, that is kairological time: whereas if you eat by the clock that is chronological time. After this small history lesson we returned to the black board where I had already neatly summed up their activities and created two columns: Chronic and kairological time. We went through the list and as we discussed each one of them I put them in the correct column. “At seven o’clock I wake up” I said hoping to kick off a discussion. “Chronos!” was the immediate reply. “We are not ready to wake up, we do so because we have to!” they shouted as if in a heavenly English choir. “That’s right!” I danced as I added the rather ridiculous “Ooh, so much more than just an English class!”. I desperately wanted to give them something to think about.

We continued. “Nine o’clock, off to work” was next. “Chronic time! It’s against nature!” chanted the group, now full of exaltation. “How about lunch?” I asked with a quick response following: “Chronos, Chronos, Chronos! We don’t eat ‘cause were hungry, but because our bosses tell us it is time to” stirred the class which was rapidly turning into some odd form of Time Rebellion. I was already sensing that I might have overcooked my chicken.

And indeed, the chants and shouting quickly dimmed down. A soft voice uttered “So I guess going to bed after Los Hombres de Paco (TV show which ends at 23.45) is also determined by Chronic time as I am normally not tired at all, but just do it because I know that I have to get up early in the morning,” said my clever student earning herself eight forceful eyes of anger.

The penny had dropped. Everything they had just summed up was determined by Chronos, totally leaving the more joyous, colorful and adventurous God Kairos out of their lives. Heads fell. Although I was glad that my plan had caused such a discussion I had lost the war. Smiles disappeared and the dropping heads were soon hitting the cold, white, synthetic table. Thud.

The only male student in the class room decided to break the silence which followed the frantic outings of despair I mentioned earlier. “You have depressed us Thomas,” summing up the feeling of my advanced group pretty nicely. I could offer them no real response. I had not thought that the class would take such a twist. I certainly didn’t have the answer. Telling them to start following Kairos would, in reality, be like telling them to simultaneously quit their jobs and this would lead me into a right muddle.

I had a quick look at my watch as everybody looked at me in disgust. Without realizing that I was checking the time – the very topic which had brought me into this mess – I was about to say “Hey, look, its well past 20.15, so class has finished, you can go home.” Luckily I understood my problem at the correct moment. I recovered and said “Don’t you all just feel like going home? Yes, let’s follow Kairos for once and go home happily,” I attempted.

They were not to be fooled. “We’re still depressed Thomas” was the last comment before everybody left in silence leaving me to ponder what had just happened.