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KimchiNinja
Joined: 01 May 2012
Location: Gangnam
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 Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 12:12 am Post subject: |
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| cj1976 wrote: |
| I know plenty of white people who don't wear shoes indoors - and none of them come from farming backgrounds. My guess is they don't want to get dirt on the carpets... |
Yeah like me.
It's a dirty habit, carpets or not. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 12:16 am Post subject: |
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| Chaparrastique wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
Heck, even if Florida when someone comes in from working outside and their shoes are wet or dirty they'll take them off on the porch.
Were these farms you're talking about next to a trailer park by chance?  |
Korea was known as "the land of shit" among Japanese soldiers and visitors in the period 1890-1920. |
He's talking about his parents' farm in the U.S. |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 12:54 am Post subject: |
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| Smithington wrote: |
| EZE wrote: |
| KimchiNinja wrote: |
| EZE wrote: |
| If some of you guys would take of your shoes before walking around in your apartments... |
Nasty. When will the West learn manners? |
That's certainly one Korea has on us. That'll probably be my one experience with reverse culture shock after I return home. |
Koreans tend to present the fact that they take off their shoes as them being "civilized" compared to the West. News Flash. Koreans take off their shoes because, until very recently, they were subsistence farmers. They were up to their knees in mud and fertilizer all day. Of course they were going to take off their shoes. Add the fact that much of the fertilizer on their shoes was (and in some places, still is) human excrement, then the shoe removal thing can be put in perspective.
We in the West had clean streets and mats to wipe our feet. Moreover, we sat in chairs and slept on beds. Koreans lived on the floor where they walked. Of course they were going to take off their dung-covered shoes.
The shoe removal thing is a product of Korea's nasty agrarian past, not some proof of them being cultured. |
"we in the West"...
I'm pretty sure a good chuck of "Western civilization" takes off their shoes when entering a home. I always did. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 1:20 am Post subject: |
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| Captain Corea wrote: |
| Smithington wrote: |
| EZE wrote: |
| KimchiNinja wrote: |
| EZE wrote: |
| If some of you guys would take of your shoes before walking around in your apartments... |
Nasty. When will the West learn manners? |
That's certainly one Korea has on us. That'll probably be my one experience with reverse culture shock after I return home. |
Koreans tend to present the fact that they take off their shoes as them being "civilized" compared to the West. News Flash. Koreans take off their shoes because, until very recently, they were subsistence farmers. They were up to their knees in mud and fertilizer all day. Of course they were going to take off their shoes. Add the fact that much of the fertilizer on their shoes was (and in some places, still is) human excrement, then the shoe removal thing can be put in perspective.
We in the West had clean streets and mats to wipe our feet. Moreover, we sat in chairs and slept on beds. Koreans lived on the floor where they walked. Of course they were going to take off their dung-covered shoes.
The shoe removal thing is a product of Korea's nasty agrarian past, not some proof of them being cultured. |
"we in the West"...
I'm pretty sure a good chuck of "Western civilization" takes off their shoes when entering a home. I always did. |
Define "good chuck."
It's fine to call out an over-generalization, but why then follow it with one of your own? |
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Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 2:10 am Post subject: |
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Sorry, a "good chunk" - meaning, a decent amount. A sizable amount. A respectable percentage.
My point being, there have been polls on this in the past on this forum, and many ppl from "the west" took off their shoes back home. I'm trying to recall exactly there results, but it was something like most canadians and brits, and a minority of americans. I'm not sure the actual percentages matter, but rather that Smithington's reasoning seemed to neglect that portion. |
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Chaparrastique
Joined: 01 Jan 2014
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 3:06 am Post subject: |
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| Captain Corea wrote: |
| Sorry, a "good chunk" - meaning, a decent amount. A sizable amount. A respectable percentage. |
Definitely a minority. Its not the norm for a westerner. A foreign import.
Its a pansy habit. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 3:23 am Post subject: |
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| Captain Corea wrote: |
Sorry, a "good chunk" - meaning, a decent amount. A sizable amount. A respectable percentage.
My point being, there have been polls on this in the past on this forum, and many ppl from "the west" took off their shoes back home. I'm trying to recall exactly there results, but it was something like most canadians and brits, and a minority of americans. I'm not sure the actual percentages matter, but rather that Smithington's reasoning seemed to neglect that portion. |
IMO it's really stretching things to consider a poll on this forum a valid measuring stick. There's just too few posters and it's a group that as expatriates might be hard to call average in many respects.
I really don't have a dog in the shoe fight either way, although I will say it can be a real PITA at times and that I rarely feel comfortable bending over with people standing right behind me.
Maybe some on this board welcome that experience. |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 3:44 am Post subject: |
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| I have to second the point that plenty of homes back home were "no shoes". Like I said, in my parents house and some of our neighbors or friends in the city, people left their shoes on. Plenty others people took their shoes off. It was really hit or miss. GENERALLY the wealthier the family, the more likely you were to take off your shoes, but this was not writ in stone. |
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wooden nickels
Joined: 23 May 2010
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:02 am Post subject: |
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| Steelrails wrote: |
| I have to second the point that plenty of homes back home were "no shoes". Like I said, in my parents house and some of our neighbors or friends in the city, people left their shoes on. Plenty others people took their shoes off. It was really hit or miss. GENERALLY the wealthier the family, the more likely you were to take off your shoes, but this was not writ in stone. |
My home was a "no shoes" home.
My parents home was a "no shoes" home.
Several of my friends had "no shoes" homes.
I came from a family who took pride in wearing a good pair of socks.  |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:24 am Post subject: |
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| wooden nickels wrote: |
| Steelrails wrote: |
| I have to second the point that plenty of homes back home were "no shoes". Like I said, in my parents house and some of our neighbors or friends in the city, people left their shoes on. Plenty others people took their shoes off. It was really hit or miss. GENERALLY the wealthier the family, the more likely you were to take off your shoes, but this was not writ in stone. |
My home was a "no shoes" home.
My parents home was a "no shoes" home.
Several of my friends had "no shoes" homes.
I came from a family who took pride in wearing a good pair of socks. |
I have to say, I like a good dress sock. Comfortable and classy. And if you're wearing athletic socks, plain white. None of that grey toed nonsense.
During the whole grey-toed breakout during the early 2000s, I had to go from Hanes to Fruit of the Loom to buying designer Nautica socks just to find a plain white athletic sock. Grey toe sucks. |
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Chaparrastique
Joined: 01 Jan 2014
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:37 am Post subject: |
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| I feel vulnerable once I've removed my shoes. |
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cj1976
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 6:39 am Post subject: |
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| There are probably more pros than cons in taking your shoes off indoors, so that's one cultural practice I wholeheartedly agree with. However, I have to draw the line at sitting on the floor, because that sucks hairy balls. The floor is for kids and pets. A grown man shouldn't have to do that. |
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Died By Bear
Joined: 13 Jul 2010
Location: On the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
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KimchiNinja
Joined: 01 May 2012
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:51 pm Post subject: |
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| cj1976 wrote: |
| A grown man shouldn't have to do that. |
Well, grown hominids have been sitting on ground for a couple million years, and grown men have been doing it for 200K years. We can use chairs now if we like...but some cultures still follow their traditions. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 6:37 pm Post subject: |
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| KimchiNinja wrote: |
| cj1976 wrote: |
| A grown man shouldn't have to do that. |
Well, grown hominids have been sitting on ground for a couple million years, and grown men have been doing it for 200K years. We can use chairs now if we like...but some cultures still blindly follow their traditions. |
Just trying to keep your "observations" accurate.  |
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