Take off your shoes!

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Take off your shoes! This is the first thing you should remember to do when entering a person's home in China. This simple custom is one that foreigners may or may not agree with and the explanation behind why may seem crazy to you.  

If you don't take off your shoes in a Chinese person's home, this could be a sign of disrespect. 

After all, you don't want to track dirt from your shoes into someone's clean home, especially if you've been walking around outside all day. However, in the US if you immediately take your shoes off without asking, this could be a sign of disrespect. 

How is it that the same behavior can have opposite meanings? 

Let's start with China. In general, more people walk than drive cars here. Since the road can get dusty and grimy at times, it is customary to remove your shoes at the entrance of the house in an effort to keep the floors more sanitary. 

In contrast, Americans do far less walking, so maybe the bottoms of their shoes don't attract quite as much dirt. Therefore, it really isn't a thing to take off your shoes inside someone's house. 

In fact, it could be a sign that you are rude and have no manners. It is as if you came to someone's house and decided to make yourself right at home and casually remove your shoes like you live there. In the US, it would be customary to ask if it is okay to take your shoes off.

 I personally hate taking my shoes off in someone's house whether in China or in the US. At least in China you are usually provided with a pair of slippers to wear in lieu of your shoes.  

Of course when I'm in China, I always adhere to this custom. However, in the US, it really annoys me when people try to make me take my shoes off and then they don't even provide you with slippers to wear. 

How do I know if there may be something wet on your floor and I step in it and get my socks wet? Have you ever walked around with a damp sock? 

It's not that fun. 

If I get athlete's foot from wet socks, I'm going to blame you. Furthermore, I don't want to get the bottom of my clean white socks dirty from your floors. 

This article was published on the Global Times Metropolitan section Two Cents page, a space for reader submissions, including opinion, humor and satire. The ideas expressed are those of the author alone, and do not represent the position of the Global Times.

Source: Global Times

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1095582.shtml

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