Is shoe removal a Canadian culture thing?
lobotome
17 years ago
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mora
17 years agobonniepunch
17 years agoRelated Discussions
Shoe removal, is it a Canadian Culture thing?
Comments (31)At our house it's 'come on in, and leave your shoes on'. Our apartment in Germany was ceramic tile throughout and that's when leaving shoes on got started - it was just too cold nd hard to go without footwear. Now we have laminate flooring throughout our house (ceramic in the bathrooms). There's a big rug at the entrance and everyone wipes their feet before coming further in. Winter and snowy boots are an exception, though. We rarely eat at the table - I always dish up the plates from the pots on the stove (just the 2 of us) and we eat in the living room. I like special occasions where I set the table with the tablecloth, napkins, fancy dishes and cutlery. It feels so civilized....See MoreCultural influences in a Jpn garden
Comments (26)Lee - Up to a point I incline to agree with your antipathy to exotic plants in a Japanese garden. Perhaps it amounts to feeling uneasy with anything that looks somehow out of place because few things of that shape grow in the wild here? For instance, I feel a bit uneasy if I see Phormium Tenax or Pampas grass. I'd probably feel even more uneasy with a Monkey Puzzle tree, especially since somebody who'd seen them growing in their native habitat in S. America said they looked out of place even there. On the other hand, a restrained use of bamboo doesn't (to me) give that feeling. That brings me to what I'd call exotic artifacts. I wonder for instance, how a sleeve fence made from cedar lath compares with one made from bamboo? Here in N. America does the one made with cedar lath look more at home in its surroundings? I lean towards using the cedar lath. Coming back to the Bear artifact, I've got some more pictures of it (of them actually - it's a mother Bear & her cub). The carving is rooted in the ground - the owners told me that it used to be a big tree in their garden, & when it got too big, they had the top removed, leaving an 8ft high stump - and a young fellow then carved the bears from it with a chain saw. They said he did it in no time. When I consider those stone foxes with a red bibs round their necks that you see in some Japanese garden settings, it makes me think of the Bears as their western equivalent (though the red bibs don't suit!). Another artifact that I saw illustrated a year or two ago - I think it was in this forum - was a wooden post or tablet, carved in the style of Native Indian work, that somebody had positioned in his garden. He may have referred to it as a Stele, but I'm not sure. (It certainly wasn't what you'd call a Totem pole), It was in just the right place & it looked entirely at home - it was just as effective as a stone artifact like a lantern. Does anybody remember it? Herb...See MoreShoes Off
Comments (122)This is my first post to this forum and the thread caught my eye because I have learned it to be a very contentious issue. First of all, I am from an area of Canada (Calgary) where shoe removal is the norm. The winters are wet, slushy, with gravel, salt and mud. For the most part, it is automatic to enter someone's home and remove shoes. A pile of shoes at the front door at a party, especially in the winter, is very common. I would never enter someone's home presuming I can wear my boots where I have walked in snow, mud, salt and gravel. For formal events like a cocktail party, people wear their boots and then change into indoor shoes that are dry. My mom hosted an annual Christmas Eve buffet which people would dress very nicely. Of course, we wouldn't ask the ladies to walk around in their lovely outfit without shoes, but it is a happy medium where people wear outdoor shoes and change into their indoor shoes upon entry to the home. When repairmen or the gas man comes to read the meter, they do not remove their boots and are not expected to do so. However, they go to great measures to wipe their feet. Many people also have mats outside the front door and inside. Summertime is a bit different. If someone is having an outdoor bbq and guests need to use the bathroom, generally shoes are not removed. It's almost a non-spoken convention. People just do it automatically, depending on the season. However, if the party is indoors, by sheer habit, most, if not all people take their shoes off. No one has to be asked. The person from the US who spent time in Calgary - I was raised there all my life. I have to guess you visited in summer when it was dry and not raining. If it was winter (unless chinooking), you most likely were wearing boots and I would consider lack of boot removal to be very rude. It's just not done. I moved to the US 4 years ago after spending a few years living in Korea. There, they remove shoes all the time and provide slippers at the door, because like someone mentioned, most Koreans sit on the floor to eat and they put their beds on the floor too. Because it was habit for me, I automatically removed my shoes upon entering homes in the US. I posted a question in a forum as to why people walked into my house with their shoes on and that is when I found out that many areas of the US, people do not remove shoes and they have various reasons. I was shocked people would be offended to be asked. Where I come from, no one had to be asked. It was just done. I had absolutely no idea that the host/ess would be offended by my doing so or that I was making myself too comfortable in their home. I was shocked that some people equated shoe removal to disrobing. Whenever I enter a home now, I ask if I should remove my shoes so to give the host/ess a choice, although the norm here in very dry AZ is to leave them on. I don't ask people to remove them here, although I would much prefer if they did. Since I have learned it's a regional thing, I am more accepting - although my husband and I do not wear shoes in the house. If I did, I would feel like I was drinking soup from the bowl or milk from a carton! My husband took a long time to "train", but now he does it automatically most of the time. For those whom are guests in home and feel their comfort exceeds the wishes of the host to keep their home in good condition, would you smoke in someone's home because it made you comfortable? Would you refuse to use a coaster on a beautiful mahogany coffee table because you don't want to? How are those issues different from someone wanting to prevent the costly task of cleaning carpet or hardwood floors? I was raised that when going to someone else's home, that it was THEIR home, to be on best behaviour and to be respectful of that. Since I am a guest, their rules are paramount and if they wanted me to leave my shoes on, I would do so because I'm not paying the mortgage. As it stands, I am on the "When in Rome" camp. I respected the culture in Korea, I respect the culture in the US and I would certainly hope that an American from a non-shoe removal area would respect the wishes of the host/ess in a Canadian home. My home is a different story and if I didn't know it was so darn offensive to some people, I would request shoe removal. I expect my husband to respect the culture when we visit Canada - and that is shoes off, unless told not to do so, although some from Canada have posted that they don't do it or expect it. I'm wondering if they live in an area like BC where there is little snow. From this long thread, which I can't believe is still going strong after over four years, it is obviously a regional/cultural issue. Those who are so adamant that their needs as a guest trump the wishes of the homeowner would not be welcome in my home. If someone's young child ran wild in my home, touched everything, broke things, I wouldn't invite them back. If someone started rummaging through my pantry or criticized the meal, they wouldn't be invited back. Why is respecting the wishes of a homeowner wanting show removal so different? Here's a photo of a very common sight in Canada in the winter:...See MorePlease remove your shoes?
Comments (150)Wow, I can't believe I've resisted posting to this thread for soooo long! lol I'm pretty convinced after reading thru the entire thread that it must be regional (?). I've got an incredibly high arch & when I was a kid oxford shoes were popular for play & casual wear (think Buster Brown kind of shoes). Nobody could stuff my foot into those shoes! For school, I wore fancy black patent leather shoes & Dad punched extra holes in the straps so they would fit over my arch. Well, those shoes were expensive so Mom/Dad had me play at home barefoot to keep my shoes lasting longer. I still have trouble finding comfortable shoes...5" spike heels are the most comfortable shoe in the world when you've got an arch like mine! lol But, even today I'm almost always barefoot even in a New England winter (hey, I'm not that tough...I wear socks). Then, fast forward 20 years & my son was born. He walked the week before he turned 8 months. Whew, what a PITA that was but that's another story. His doctor said NOT to put shoes on him until he was at least 2 years old or his little feet would be ruined. So, my DS learned to also love being barefoot. Neither of us wear shoes in the house. My DH, OTOH, has foot problems & finds being barefoot very uncomfortable. I've always had a "No Shoes In The House" policy...sorta. I bend to individual situations. DH wears sneakers that don't go outside & I don't request elderly people or those I know who have foot problems to remove their shoes. For those who are physically able though I expect them to take off the dirty shoes before coming inside. I live in CT & prior to that NH...both firmly in the northeast. I don't have to have a sign on the door because people just automatically take off their shoes. Even repairmen bring those blue booties to wear inside. They take the booties on/off every time they go out to their truck & come back inside. Guess I thought repairmen did that everywhere??? Sounds from this thread like I'm wrong...not every repairman wear booties. It's common here to have booties available at Open Houses. Not at all Open Houses but enough that it shouldn't surprise anybody. Also, we are boat owners & most of our friends are boat owners. You do NOT go onboard someone's boat with your shoes without asking permission. That's just a "no no"...period...same as saying, "Permission to board?" before just hopping on the boat. It's part of boating ettiquette. Boaters spend an inordinate amount of time swabbing decks & having a guest walk across the clean white deck with either mud or grass stuck to their shoes is reason to "walk the plank"!! I'm joking, of course! Anyway, it's habit to remove our shoes so we do it in each other's homes as well, I guess. I find it a bit amusing how worked up people get over the topic. For those of you who don't like the germ aspect...do you have pets, do you hose your kids off outside before allowing them in the house after a good game of touch football on a rainy Sunday afternoon, & for the women...do you put your purse on the floor & then plop it down on your kitchen counter/table? For those of you who don't want to remove your shoes...I have a question. My Dad would never remove his shoes when he came inside my home. I finally had a little father/daughter spat with him over the issue. He told me, "Patsy (his nickname for me), when I take off my shoes I feel less in charge, more vunerable, & less in stature & I don't like it!" I never asked Dad to take off his shoes again. Do any of you feel that way? /tricia...See Moretiffy_z5_6_can
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