Saturday, November 26, 2011
Shoes Off
I have some friends in my residence hall who are full Asian. In Japan and in most Asian countries, you must take your shoes off when you enter anyone's house. My friends just finished cleaning their room and moved their beds around and a few guys from down the hall wanted to come in. They walked in with their shoes on. I looked at my friends and they didn't show much on their face, but I knew that it was different to them, so I politely asked the guys that they should take their shoes off. There were no tensions and they took off their shoes and continued their conversation. Its funny, because I assumed that people knew here because I have American friends from Japan who always take their shoes off when they enter someone's house. I'm completely fine if people make the mistake once or twice, but they just need to learn.
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Here I get to learn something really interesting. I never knew that in Japan there's this trend of removing shoes before entering your house. This sounds really interesting. I must say that you did a great job by asking your friends politely to remove off their shoes. At least you were aware of the fact and hence supported it. :)
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Josh, I too find this very weird and unusual. Coming from the Middle East, we were always told to remove our shoes before entering someone’s room as a way of showing respect. However, if I were to do this practice here, it would be considered an anomaly. But it is good to see that you stood by your cultural and traditional practices even though they are not very common here in the States. Going further, I was astonished by the fact that even people in Japan remove their footwear before entering a house or room. I was always under the impression that this gesture was only practiced in the Middle Eastern countries and some countries in the Indian subcontinent like India and Pakistan. Your post made me realize as to how similar two cultures can be in spite of having such a great amount of land separating them. Maybe if global leaders focused on how similar all of us humans are rather than picking on the little differences that exist among us, we would actually move towards having a peaceful and problem-free world. ENGL 106
ReplyDeleteThat is so funny, because I have the same experiences. When I was living in China, I was always very aware that I need to take off my shoes as to not drag in the dirt from the outside, into the carpet or into the house. I always took off my shoes out of politeness and a common respect for the cleanliness of the house. I do not do that when I am in America. I went over to one of my asian friends apartments while here at purdue, and I took two steps on the carpet with my shoes. After I did this my asian friend was like, why are your shoes on? It then entered into my mind that I made a mistake and then I took them off and all was normal. Gotta respect! (engr 103)
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