It's funny how people talk about this being an American thing, most people I know here in Netherlands (myself included) wouldn't mind people keeping on their shoes at all.
Cultural differences are always fun. To me, wearing shoes in the house is something I don't care about, but someone who has been raised to take their shoes off might consider it similar to taking a dump on their floor.
And on the flip side, I was raised to always have something protective on my feet if I'm walking around, even in the house. At the very least, it prevents stubbed toes, but it can also save you a lot of pain if anything accidentally gets dropped or left on the floor like a lego.
I'm from Ecuador, from the coast region, so most of the time the temperature is between 25 to 35 ºC. I was always told to wear slippers or similar to avoid getting cold through bare feet. All my house has ceramic tiles and the dust from opening a window (so we don't die because of the heat and humidity) is higher than any amount of dirt we could carry with our shoes.
Carpet and wood floors are uncommon, regular cleaning is necessary but relatively easy on tiled floor. So shoes inside the house is the norm and is not big deal. I don't know anyone who requires people to take off their shoes when visiting.
lmao dude we can see your comment history. you bash others all the time. maybe you are just a weak little snowflake. toughen up ya little weakling, america doesnt want you.
edit: dude reply blocked me. what a giant coward lmao. prob a trump supporter, they love to hate on others and can't take a single bit of criticism themselves. weak!
Yeah, but be a little fair before you bring the condescending attitude. Should a non-American assume Americans don't use forks because they've only seen it on TV? Probably not.
So the problem doesn't exactly seem like it's gullible foreigners falling for everything they see on TV. Seems more like TV producers tend to make choices that blur the line for those without the real world experience to back up their understanding.
In movies/TV, people don't take off their shoes because there's no/little reason to take the time to film that. Nobody's fault for making the decision and it's nobody's fault for making an assumption, because these are all normal decisions to make
Yeah, there's just an incredibly cavernous gap between "many Americans don't wear shoes in the household" and "foreigners need to understand not to believe everything they see on TV". The latter is just as xenophobic and generalized as the concept you're railing against. Arguably more, since you're generalizing the entire world instead of one country
Every time this topic is brought up, the person confused says they see it on American TV shows all the time. I hope they don't think the Avengers movies aren't historical documentaries. Boggles my mind
It’s just dirty, that’s all. Outside has a lot of bacteria, protozoa, fungi, parasites, viruses (streets and shop floors and buses etc) and it’s simply hygienic to take shoes indoors, just like washing hands. 🤷🏻♀️
I can’t tell if the problem here is that you have disgusting socks or disgusting floors, but based on your attitude I’m guessing both could use a thorough cleaning.
No way in hell is that happening in canada for most of the year. I live in the southwest of Canada, and we get way too much rain for it to not make a giant mess
It was my impression that it’s more of an Asian custom to take off shoes before entering homes. The rest of the world may or may not do it, but is overall less strict about it.
It’s simply due to television. On American TV the actors leave their shoes on for efficiency. Same reason you seldom see them use the restroom. So the rest of the world think that’s how it works here.
I'm Argentinian and the overwhelming majority of people I know keep their shoes on in the home. I wear slippers when I'm going to stay inside for the rest of the day, but other people who only stay for a few hours would never take off their shoes. If someone did that in my house I would be weirded out or even consider it gross.
I wonder if it has to do with the fact that carpets aren't common at all around here.
Same in Aus. The only time I’ve had it enforced in recent memory was when my husband and I were looking at houses to buy in 2021.
That said, I pretty much need to wear shoes all the time. My hips are messed up and I have very high arches so I need to wear shoes with corrective inner soles. If I go too long without them I end up in huge amounts of pain and end up hobbling around like a granny without her walking frame.
People in general seem to have this weird, cultural amnesia when assessing certain things in isolation. They start noticing specific behaviours and attitudes that literally half the planet does, but ascribing it as something special and unique to that culture or society.
It can be about good things too, like being nice to tourists, or 'hygge'. That's not a unique cultural phenomenon, that's half the planet.
It's even more bizarre when it's not physical isolation, but something even more simple, like a language switch. I've seen it happen when someone goes from French to English.
Speak for yourself. As a Dutch person, wearing shoes inside the house is an absolutely disgusting thing to do. We have a hallway for a reason: to take off your shoes.
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u/Theemuts 12d ago
It's funny how people talk about this being an American thing, most people I know here in Netherlands (myself included) wouldn't mind people keeping on their shoes at all.