Do Americans Wear Their Shoes Inside??
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- Опубликовано: 12 май 2018
- In this video, I talk about a rumor going around that Americans are filthy people because we wear our shoes inside.
This video was inspired by the comments I got on my German Apartment Video which you can watch here - • My German Flat vs Amer...
Prepare to be traumatized and read about how dirty your shoes are here:
www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...
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Hi. I'm german. After entering our appartement we first took our shoes off and second wash our hands.
maro 81 Same here.
Same in Poland.
Same in china
Its done in most countries .
In TV series , that is a set , a work place for those actors and how many goes to work and takes their shoes off ?
Also i was wondering does Americans wear shoes inside when their floors are cold when they dont insulate their buildings ?
@Tomiris Kassenova Sadly i can not say the same about Norwegians, they take of their shoes, but i guess only around 10-20% also wash their hands.
It was actually a Russian that made me aware how bad it was not to do that..
I´m always weirded out when they jump into bed with shoes in Hollywood movies.
After wiping your bum, do you wash your hands? After picking your nose, do you cook? Come on, think!
@@theoneonly2863 wtf
Same
DISGUSTING 😅
@@theoneonly2863yes I wash my hands always wtf
The term "Amis" (= short for Americans) is not.. bad. It's kinda neutral, but often used when talking about stereotypes or politics. We simply do not use the long word "americans" when talking about the nation as a whole. Like "The Amis and the Russians should ...".
Here at Finland we sometimes call Americans as "jenkki", but that is to separate USA from America.
Can I call you a germ? (just joking :p)
"Amis" is French for "friends," so as an American, I don't mind the term.
I agree. "Amis" is not necessarily negative. It can be depending on the intonation but in general it's just our abbreviation for Americans :)
And hot dogs came from frankfurters.
My family in the USA and I have always prohibited shoes in the house. That said, I realized how uncommon that is when I got my own apartment and got strange looks and even occasional protests when I asked my visitors to take off their shoes in my place. Very frustrating and unhygenic to deal with, especially given the harsh chemical treatments to the roads near me every winter. Oh well.
What area of the US are you from? I just ask because it was always my experience growing up that you don't wear your shoes in private homes, just public places, although you do ask permission to take them off on your first visit because it's informal behavior. It really confused me that people thought Americans did. I grew up in the south. I'm wondering if it's that or if I just grew up in some odd cultural bubble.
@@heathermorrison1674 I'm in New Hampshire. People are odd about feet in general here it seems. So much so that I've met people who think it's illegal to be barefoot in public. My bf is from Arkansas and he tells me that down south they are less neurotic about naked foot flesh, so I don't know if I'd say that's a cultural bubble but it's certainly cultural.
@@kayEnt3rtainm3nt That makes sense. Thanks. To be fair to New Hampshire, I would think the historical danger of losing toes to frost bite could've influenced the development of local shoe etiquette. 😁
"harsh chemical treatments to the roads" - you do realize that sodium chloride, potassium chloride and calcium chloride are found in food? Those are the three leading chemicals used for de-icing roads.
@@Salmagundiii Forgive me for not understanting, but I'm struggling to understand how your response follows my initial comment. Yes, I know that "salt" is found in food. That doesn't mean that I want it all over my floors nor does it invalidate my statement at all. Anti-freeze (Propylene glycol) IS a harmful substance to skin found in the more powerful road salts like the kind they have to use for heavy snowfall prone areas like mine. That's why pet-safe de-icing mixtures are made without it.
I’m from New Zealand and we take our shoes off at our own homes or someone else’s. Grew up watching movies and tv shows and also saw people with shoes on inside their houses. Always thought it was an American thing.
i think that taking off shoes inside is common habit in many European countries. However we also always tell our visitors "please don't take off shoes" as a display of respect to them. But they usualy take off shoes anyway as a display of respect to the host.
I never heard anybody say "please don't take off your shoes" out of respect. Why would it portrait respect anyway? Not in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands or UK...
@@intetx its like naah you dont have to take off the shoes, its very common to say that in germany
In Canada it's common to ask your guests not to take your shoes off if they're not staying long but most people do anyway. The people that usually always keep their shoes on are service people like a cable or HVAC guy.
@@intetx we do that all the time (Germany) it's like "nah the floor isn't sweeped anyway" we don't want the guest to ruin their socks
my family always says "please leave your shoes on" to visitors cause YES it's a way of paying respects and I think it's really important
Ich ziehe meine Schuhe immer in der Wohnung aus und das, sobald ich von der Arbeit komme. Denn Schuhe erinnern mich immer an Arbeit und sobald diese ausgezogen sind, beginnt für mich der Feierabend!
In Sweden you dont even have to tell your guests so take of their shoes, everybody does it.
The same for Ukraine, and the rest of Europe i guess.
I'm from Finland and we always take shoes off unless it's a party where people are assumed to wear heals and so on.
In general I just find wearing shoes inside uncomfortable. Maybe part of it is the fact that during winter they need to be so warm and it would be super hot to keep them on, part of it is me just wanting to keep the floors clean, but definitely mostly the fact that shoes have never been that confortable that I'd keep them on at home.
Like sure I can use them for a day for school/work, but when I get home, taking my shoes off could be compared to taking a bra off. It feels nice, gives me more freedom. Why would I not want that?
Lots of American farm houses (and even those that aren't on farms) have a "mud room". You ditch your "outside shoes" there, and either go barefoot or put on house shoes, like slippers or loafers, something easy to get on and off.
very true! i wish i would've thought to mention mud rooms when i talked about hall closets. thanks for watching :)
That is funny!
Old german country side houses have that too. Also to keep work clothes and winter clothes (with dirt or snow) out of the house, but not totally outside.
In our area of germany it is called Vorflur = befor-corridor (because it is the corridor bevor the actual corridor)
I grew up on a farm(west coast US) we always had a mud room,and most my friends had entrances where you put your coats and shoes I did not know that the rest of the world thought ill of us for shoes.eye opening to me.
Another viewpoint is that people are letting their environments become too sterile. Yes, those germs are on the bottom of our shoes. But they are cultured in a lab on an appropriate medium designed to make them proliferate. That just doesn’t happen in your house. Especially with regular care and cleaning, such as wiping surfaces, and vacuuming and mopping. Steam cleaning floors is also an effective way to kill those “bugs”. You’d have to be careful with immune compromised individuals and then need to be more diligent about outside “dirt” coming in.
That said, you want exposure to all the vibrant and various forms of life. It’s what makes us immune and resistant to illness. But it is nice to not have stuff tracked in from outside!
@@cindland Im glad you posted this so I didnt have to.. I have a friend who's family was extremely germophobic and his mom would disinfect EVERYTHING, point is, he would get a scratch or a scrape or a splinter and ALWAYS have an infection develop, he easily got common colds, he was always sneezing, very sensitive to pollen and spores, spent most of his teen life like that.. then he moves out got married and did his own thing.. now he has no allergies, no crazy infections from paper cuts etc. etc. so there ya go.. if you are not exposed, you are not prepared. we can get into the cons. of antibiotics for hours as well.
I got here wondering the same thing. Here In Hawaii we take off our shoes inside. The idea of tracking that who knows from outside into your home is absolutely disgusting. And no it’s not rude to ask someone to take off their shoes upon entering. It’s your home, your rules. If I’m asked to take off a hat before entering a temple guess what, I’m not offended.
I get that they don't want to use screen time for putting/taking shoes off. But STILL it is a horrible sight when someone has shoes that have been out on the streets on the sofa or on the bed :(
no shoes that you see in the movies have ever been outside. and if they look muddy its on purpose and is intended so. and really no one sleeps in the beds that you see in the movies either. its just a show
LOL Thanks for explaining Natalie. And all this time I thought they were documentaries.. btw. I think that some people do "sleep" in those beds, on a lunch break they might have some fun ;)
lol they might, but I'm sure they have more private places for lunch break fun
I am American and take my shoes off inside my house. I do it because it keeps the floors cleaner and I don't have to worry about bringing odd stuff in. I wasn't always like this however, that started once I moved out from my parents house since I care about how clean our living area is. I also come to expect others to respect this and never ran into anyone that opposed to it or felt like I was being rude. Although it seems pretty common in Wisconsin for people to take off their shoes versus when I lived in Illinois.
DarkPontiac
I learned that the hard way once I got a puppy on 2.5 acres (dirt lot).. Also, free roaming chickens make for shoe conscious residents... Americans in "town" are different than us rural folks... I'd like to recommend rain boots for anyone feeding the hogs... 😂
spirals 73 so German traditions are valued and therefore adhered to by the younger generations?
I’m in the Midwest and I don’t know that many people that wear their shoes in their home.
I do also because I lived out of the country a lot and got accustomed to it, it makes a lot of sense and helps keep the place clean.
I'm from NY, and we didn't wear shoes inside when I was growing up because we had a light-colored rug in the living room which my parents wanted to keep clean, but I did used to wear clean slides all the time. So I've never felt right wearing shoes on a rug/carpet
In my culture everyone takes their shoes off.. it's just the standard. If they don't want people to see their ingrown toenails they just wear socks when visiting other people. And then the host offers indoor shoes which makes the guest more comfortable in case they're worried that the floor might be unclean. Many ppl even have extra indoor shoes for guests which they don't use themselves to keep them nice looking and ready at all times
I think this is kind of the best solution (not because it's my culture) because this way everyone does their part in keeping everything around them clean and staying clean themselves, and since it's integrated into the culture and is considered normal behavior no one gets offended by doing so
I concur, I offer new slippers for my guest. I have one person that tries to buck the system. But she grudgingly remove shoes. Or you don't enter my home. I respect other people's home. I don't care if they get insulted. I get insulted when they don't want to remove their shoes. It's nasty. I learned how nasty it was to walk all outside inside and got totally creeped out. It trips me out after people mop their floors and walk right behind with their dirty shoes one. Just does that make sense to me. My opinion only. Not putting my conviction on anyone else.
I am an American who does not wear outdoor shoes inside the home. I have a couple pair of shoes I only wear inside my house. It preserves the carpet & reduces the spread of germs. I grew up on a farm so it was necessary to remove dirty or muddy shoes. Plus it was fun to slide on the hardwood floors in our socks!
OMG I like your video. you have a great humour sense and you are soooo talkative .....non-stop for 12 minutes. I guess nobody ever won you in a quarrel :)
Omg! Finally someone speaks how filthy it is to wear outside shoes inside.
Couple of years ago I was at a gym where I found a lady stuffing her dirty shoes into her handbag that basically had her phone, water bottle and other essentials in it & I was like WTF, why bother even taking shower after that?🙄
It freaked me out!
I just hope people consider practicing a little cleaner habits🤞
Funnily enough, as my name/ profile pic implies, i grown great friends with some SF marines whod been stationed here in between their deployments .. they watched us playing soccer, until I invited them and since I was the only one speaking at least a bit English, we started to hang out and I showed them around, and eventually would invite them to have barbecue the german way, at my house (after they invited me to the barracks).. and surprisingly, as now that I see it’s weird, without asking, after I took off my shoes at the door step, they just mimicked and did so.. back then I found it normal, but now I’m gonna ask them whether they did it out of reflex or because I did it :D great video as always, enjoy upcoming summer in here 👏🏽👏🏽
i surely cannot speak on behalf of your friends, but i know that when i'm traveling, visiting friends, etc, i'm always mimicking behavior. so if i would've seen you kick off your shoes, regardless of what felt natural to me, i would've kicked off my shoes too haha. thanks for watching :)
All I have to say is you hit the nail on the head. I never thought that people from other countries thought that TV shows and movies are exactly the way we live. My parents taught me to NEVER take how a person from a different country lives as the truth for everybody in that particular country. My parent told me "it's a movie or tv show and 90% of what you see if NOT true."
I really don't wear shoes in the house unless it's 2 steps to the toliet or 5 steps to the couch. These two areas are really really really easy to keep clean. I have to vacuum the house everyday and mop the floor once a week because of the animals I have.
As for house guests I really don't care as long as they are trained not to put their shoes on the couch, table, bed, etc. Generally it's young children who don't know not to do this. The reason I do this is because people have some really nasty foot or nail fungus and I don't want to pick it up. Supplying slippers for the guests will spread foot and nail fungus if a guest has it. The majority of the bacteria on normal everyday shoes is really not that harmful unless you get on your hands and knees and lick the floor.
thanks! yeah, but i mean...i can understand that it can be hard to know how many fallacies are in our TV if you (or your parents) have never been to the US...and then our news channels don't exactly help haha they can make a small gathering of people protesting the removal of a tree look like a nation-wide anarchist movement lol thanks for sharing :)
Thank you
I think this video was very important to raise awareness of stereotypes and social backgrounds.
Love u
Canadian here. Unless you're helping someone move or something, you take your shoes off when you enter your own or anyone else's home. The first time I became aware this was different in the States was when I was a kid in the 70s watching a rerun of The Brady Bunch and I noticed they were all running around in the house with their shoes on. I quickly rationalized that it was because they were actually on a sound stage, so that was why. But no, turned out it was just a thing (Bruce Springsteen: "There's a strange pair of shoes... underneath the bed...") Went to stay with friends in LA in the mid-90s and when I got back to their place, I took my shoes off at the door. My host looked at me like I'd just peeled my shirt off or something. Weird response. But if I'd traipsed around town barefoot all day and just wandered in with all that on my feet, would he have been fine with that? Don't think so. So why is it fine if it's sticking to your shoes?
Amis is just short for Americans.
Also ammattikoulu is shortened as amis which stands for vocatonial school in finnish language-
*"Amis"* is just a shortener and dont have any negative implications.
Sheldon Cooper talks about washing and even disinfecting his hands many times. But have we ever seen him wash his hands? He comes home with takeout food, sits down and eats it with his fingers. After touching all those door knobs etc. But it's only a TV show.
One thing is taking off your shoes but another thing is washing your hands when you get home. When my kids were in Kita (preschool and kindergarten) they were the only kids who washed their hands after arriving and taking off their shoes and before breakfast. All the other kids stormed in, took off their shoes (with their hands!) and then touched their sandwiches, fruits and vegetables. For seven years I tried to spread the word. But they kept spreading the germs.
haha yeah i don't think anyone would want to watch the show if it was a true representation of Sheldon since it would just be him cleaning himself and the apartment over and over. good point about washing your hands!
Ever heard of the ‘hygiene hypothesis’ for autoimmune and allergic diseases?
what is that hypothesis? you think a person with a autoimmune disease washed the hands to often?
Natalie Dyck , allergies and asthma aren't autoimmune disorders (although it may also have some prophylactic effect against those autoimmune disorders which are acquired). On the other hand, it isn't about "washing your hands too often" but about living in an environment too clean and aseptic. And it may not even be you who live that way but your mother who did it when she was pregnant of you during the first trimester of her pregnancy. There have been performed some experiment in which a group of pregnant women was exposed to barnyard dust (I think they inhaled it) and later on their children developed significantly fewer allergies and cases asthma than the control group. So the goal would rather be to get exposed to microbial life "naturally" present in the environment (such as the dirt you may carry on the soles of your shoes, or the dirt of your garden) while avoiding pathogenic strains carried by other people and their secretions, or present in contaminated food (raw meat and raw eggs), surfaces touched by or exposed to numerous other people, cat feces, etc.So it would be more advisable to wash your hand whenever you've been in contact to other people, their secretions, the feces of pets or stray dogs and cats, raw meat and raw eggs, but I wouldn't care about dirt or other raw food. You may also want to wash your hands if you're going to touch other people or prepare their food, especially if you won't cook it at high temperature.
www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/health/dust-asthma-children.html
I know very well what an autoimmune disease is. and it was you who mentioned that and i never said anything about allergies or asthma. And no my mother was exposed to all of the dust and so on living on a farm, and me as well. so that is not the case
I put off shoes because of several reasons:
- It is not comfortable to walk with street shoes at home. Also your feet will sweat and smell.
- It is dirty. You spread the dirt through your whole home. As result you need to clean more often.
- Shoes damage wooden floor. If you have wooden floor and a litte stone stuck unter your shoe. you will do scratches on the floor
Go to japan they also have separate slippers only for bathroom.
Amis is just a shorter term for Amerikaner.
"Ami" ist eigentlich eine abwertende und respektlose Bezeichnung für Amerikaner!
Im Prinzip das Gleiche, wenn Amerikaner Deutsche als "Krauts" bezeichnen.
asrsi kommt darauf an wie man diesen Begriff benutzt. Ich bin in Bayern und da ist es relativ standart Sachen abzukürzen. Nicht alles muss abwertend sein. Ich werde als der Russ bezeichnet oder der türk oder oder oder.
Also ich kenne es eher als abwertend/respektlos. Kann sein, dass manche es damit vielleicht nicht so meinen, aber für manche ist es abwertend.
Ist "Ami" echt abwertend? War mir dessen echt nicht bewusst. Habs einfach so benutzt, weil ich generell viel abkürze...
@@Lunedai Ich kenne persönlich niemanden, der es als generell negativen Terminus verwendet. Kommt immer auf den Kontext an. Aber ich komme auch aus Bayern und da wird fast alles wertungsfrei abgekürzt, wie oben schon erwähnt, Russ, Türk, Ami, Ossi, etc...
I was born in America and my family always takes their shoes off in the house.
I don't understand why anyone wouldn't especially when it's so dirty outside.
And yes I yell at my guests to take their shoes off.
I wouldn't go as far as to take my socks off though especially when my feet get cold and I have cats.
Same except sometimes at my friends house I don’t take my shoes off but they don’t care but I care when they go to my house 😂
You clean your shoes outside obviously
No shoes inside the house here... my grandfather’s parents were German immigrants .... My mother and father both grew up in homes were shoes were not allowed pass the front door. That is the rule in my house as well as our kids homes... yup we passed it along. It only makes sense to remove your shoes for everything you spoke about in the video. Thanks Kelly! Really enjoy your videos! And yes, my last name is German for helper 😊
I guess it is a very cultural thing wearing shoes inside the house or not. I am biracial being Dutch and the other half from Suriname. My aunts from Suriname will almost slap me if I even think about walking in the house with shoes on, where the Dutch side of the family generally doesn't mind as long as your shoes aren't covered in mud or such.
Keep up the good work Kelly I really like your videos!
thanks for sharing! and thank you :)
My experience as well, most Dutch people are used to wearing shoes inside, but many people with an immigrant background always take their shoes off inside. I think there might be a trend for Dutch people to take their shoes off as well. Perhaps influenced by other cultures, perhaps also because most people's homes today are quite a bit warmer than say, 50 years ago.
I'm a bit in between myself, but I often let the temperature decide, if it's warm or even hot, I definitely like to take my shoes off! And of course also when the shoes are wet or dirty.
Thank you for this video ! Let's educate them !
Enlightening stuff. Great big bang analogy..
thanks! :)
Hi Kelly, as a german and mainzer I would say that it is really common to take your shoes of for different reasons. Showing respect, being courteous, not bringing dirt inside and feeling comfy. It's a good thing.
As I said that I am living in Mainz, I would really recommend you to visit the Marktfrühstück at the Dom ever saturday. Basically it was just a market but it grew to a real big weekly happening with thousands of people.
I would love to hear your opinion on that and maybe we could explore it together if you want to or need a local guide.
Looking forward to the next videos!
I love the Marktfrühstück! it's one of my favorite things about living in mainz. and i really, really love that you guys are so much more relaxed about drinking in public. it's cool that you can just stroll up to a wine tent and then walk around with a glass of wine, and so on. thanks :) :)
Kelly does her thing Hehe I already expected that kind of answer :D Marktfrühstück is a part of a Mainzer Religion. So, in some ways even the Germans can have some unregulated fun even in the morning and even in public haha.
Did you also know about the weinsalon at the Hilton hotel every first tuesday of month in summertime? Quite similar to MFS but after work..
I'm norwegian and we're very much like germans, and most europeans I guess, about this issue. We learn from we're kids to take off our shoes before we enter the house/apartment. Usually norwegian houses and apartments have a small outer hall specifically meant for this and hanging your jacket, scarf, mittens, and stuff you only wear outside. This outer hall is also traditional because it catches the wind and snow/rain so it doesn't come into the living room. It's called "vindfang" in norwegian, which translates to something like windbreak in english.
Anyway, we learn as small kids to take off our shoes and boots, so it's part of our upbringing and therefore is automatic, just like brushing our teeth and washing the hands. It actually takes an effort to remember NOT to take off the shoes! LOL
There isn't one singular behavior for any particular activity that even the majority of Americans do in the same way. There aren't many monolithic cultural norms that apply across the entire nation of 330M people, meaning, In reality, every single stereotype of Americans is both true and untrue at the same time.
Well said. Same for Canadians. We each live in a country as large as Europe and for some reason, we’re generalized as if we’re all the same from coast to coast. Couldn’t be further from the truth, really.
Many Americans do take off their shoes but the cultural norm is not to, and earlier generations in the 20th century were less likely to. It's becoming more common now because people have more contact with European and Asian cultures.
The term "Amis" for Americans is just a "shortening" and nothing else....there is no meanness behind or some preference...just a shortening to 2 syllables because the fully german term "Amerikaner" would have 5 syllables which is quite a lot and many terms with many syllables are shorted in the common speech so that´s nothing special to do so ...germans do quite often shorten some long words with more than at least 3 syllables (especially names)... if it´s possible and they don´t loose their true meaning.
I think it is a lot about climate and weather, rather than bacteria, here in Sweden we have bad weather 8 months a year, and we walk around in heavy winter boots, which are wet and covered with clay and gravel when we get home.
This was So entertaining to watch! First of all, you are correct, people get super passionate about things and Americans just have no energy about them. It’s funny to be able to laugh at those differences. My personal experience happened in the US in regard to shoes. I know a Doctor who unknowingly brought home a very dangerous virus on the bottom of her shoes and her son (who is at the crawling stage) picked up the virus and almost died. From that point on she always made everybody take their shoes off at the door. But that was the first time that I had ever heard an American make a point out of asking people to take their shoes off at the door. It was also the first time that I have ever thought about that being an issue. 👟 meanwhile, my German husband was looking at me like, “duh!” 🤣
thank you! and oh wow! that's a crazy story and i'm glad that the son seems to have made a recovery. and your husband's response is hilarious hahah
But doesn't it make sense that those working in a hospital shouldn't bring any clothes they wear there to their home. Seems like a no brainer, if medical institutions are not already doing that, that's a huge obvious flaw in the system. They should also be taking showers before leaving the hospital, shouldn't they?
Do you recommend a good and reliable shopping website?
Ahhh heck! Your pun totally worked! Ya made me smile!
yes! :) glad to see if made you smile!
I live in America and most of the people I know have a designated area for guest to put there shoes or boots. This might be due to where I live (it snows a lot) so maybe that’s why, but everyone also takes off there shoes in the summertime. The only times I walk around someone else’s house with shoes on is if I can see that the floor is filthy.
Hi Kelly. Sheldon Cooper is an excellent choice for an example. I never thought about it until now.
Hey Kelly, i am a German living currently in North Carolina because I am married to a US citizen and we plan right now to move to Germany in 2019. We find ourselves often talking about groceries for typically American/Southern Kitchen foods and if we do get everything in Germany. I thought it would be interesting to people who Plan living in Germany or study abroad to see what to buy to fix those typically American meals and where to go to get everything you need to fix it. Like Country Fried Chicken, Green Bean Casserole or even if you know it, Chicken & Noodles with Cream of Mushroom. Anyways, we like you and your vlogs ... keep on doing those videos.
wow this is a really, really good idea! i will look into it! thanks :) and i hope you have a smooth move and enjoy!
Kelly does her thing I would really looking forward to watch videos about that and I guess you would make an awesome job finding everything
do u "blend in" or "stand out" there as far as ur looks??
This reminds me of a scene in the British TV series Keeping up Appearances. At one point Hyacinth insists that a cop takes off his shoes before entering her and Richards apartment. Then there's a closeup on the cops feet with just socks and a laugh track plays. That just seems so weird because of course you wear socks inside.
What the heck is Amis? wow see, I learn something every time! Also, when I get home, I always take off my shoes, wash my hands, take a shower, change my clothes, put the dirty clothes in the washer, then the dryer, make sure my wife sprays anti-bacterial stuff all over me, then isolate myself in the closet with one of those blue light thingys, then... well I've already said too much. Then I grab a hamburger/pizza, great combo! always love your vids!
hahahaha i was reading your comment like oh ok...that's normal..."wife sprays anti-bacter...." wait what?? hahaha thanks for watching as always :)
Ever been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)? 😂
My parents & I were born & raised in the USA. We & almost every home we visit, you remove your shoes after you get inside. You're not even told to, it's just expected & done. However, I did have 1 roomate that I had to constantly tell to take off his shoes inside our home.
Are shoes dirtier than dog paws? People don't think about their dogs paws after they've been outside
I grew up on the big island of Hawaii. We always took off our shoes upon entering our house or anyone's house. When we moved to the mainland, my family still did this, but it was not normal in California. To this day wearing shoes in the house feels weird.
i've heard it is a cultural norm in Hawaii...i'm sure it feels weird when you grew up a different way
I used to be a TV engineer and went to a call to a job in the UK to people from Japan. I was asked to remove my shoes and provided with disposable slippers. I thought that was odd, but went along with it anyway. Having traveled a bit I found out that some places are strict about this, but most places are
not . The landlady in Romania was paranoid!
Hi, I'm German. Normally i take off my shoes before entering my apartment, but as you said, when get dressed up i tend to put my shoes on to see if it fits the outfit well. i just mop the floor the day later...
I'm from Chicago area. We always take off our shoes and at family and friends homes. Except for big social gatherings. And of course in the winter with boots and snow covered shoes. Like you said when people visit it's up to who's visiting. With family and friends its common to remove shoes.
And suddenly the American face mask 😷 debate - or the fact that it’s even a debate at all - makes complete sense.
It may be that quite a few Europeans live in old houses with exclusive old floors. Both wood and parquet floors, but also stone floors. As they are old, the floors can often be very fragile. That's why we only use indoor shoes that protect the old floors from destruction. the floors SHOULD look old so they must not be replaced. The difference between the US and the EU is that Americans like it to look shiny new, and the "worn" is a sign of poverty. Whereas Europeans want it to appear that things are old and have a history which shows cultural heritage. A new floor just looks like new money, and that's a shame in Europe. Maybe it is?
I'm Amis (American) and I take off my shoes sometimes and what the nasty part about shoes inside like what if you went inside then had to go outside really quick you have to put those shoes back on
I don't understand all the fuzz about wearing shoes inside or not, but after a days work I was happy
to take my safety shoes of and slip into something more comfortable, or walking barefoot.
But what I don't understand is that if you enter a murican house that there seems to be
no hall behind the frontdoor, the frontdoor opens into the livingroom.
Or is it just a stereotype from TV shows?
It varies, I've been to some US homes where instantly you're in the living room, or kitchen, others have had a hall of some sort
yes in smaller houses the door opens into the living room, this door seems like its the main/front door, but houses have two entrances and that one is not usually used anyways.mostly for mailman or sometimes visitors. a door that goes through the garage or/and mudroom would be the one that is mostly used to enter the house
I knew Japanese take their shoes off when they enter a house but I never knew anyone else did. But when I was in Russia I found out it's common there (and often sandals for house shoes), so when I got home I continued it. Except I don't take off my shoes immediately, partly because my entry is a small dark hallway, so I first put my backpack down and empty it and take down the trash and do everything I need shoes for, then I go to my room and take off my shoes.
Well done explanation!
thank you :)
I am guessing that Germans do not go outside barefoot either. When I was a kid, I spent most of my summer barefoot outside. I think people are just too worried about germs.
there are more bacteria in your mouth than on your shoes.bacteria lives where is moisture warm and soft surface
I'm an American and In my house and everyone I know takes our shoes off before entering the house unless the porch is dirty then we take our shoes off right at the front door as soon as we enter the home. But i tend to always spray the heck out of my shoes with sanitizers and air freshening products to kill 99% of the germs on them and to make them smell nice.
There is another aspect to the shoe thing in Europe. We often use a lot of money on our floors. We often use oak floors and other soft unfinished floor boards....we would never step inside another persons house with our shoes on at the risk of ruining their $5000 floor. (If you got a little stone stuck in your sole maybe)
When I came to Germany 1984 I was shocked that it was generally normal to keep your shoes on when you visited someone and many people kept their shoes on in their own homes! I found that gross especially since dog´s left overs were everywhere here on the pavement than and the habit of cleaning after your dog was not established yet.
Now I am very pleased of your perception that german people tend to to take off their street shoes when they are in homes. And I realize that the majority of german dogholders take care of the left overs. I am very happy about that. I love german people, culture and society in most parts!!
Back then it was quite unusual to eat garlic in Germany and someone who smelled after garlic consumption was condemned and disdained more or less openly. Now since the nineties it has changed rather radically and very many german people enjoy garlic and exotic food with garlic and I am quite sure that most of them do not remember the near past and would deny that it was different then.
Eating raw fish was unthinkable back then and now Sushi restaurants are everywhere.
I assume the majority of the people who uses internet extensively and watch your videos are rather young and have a rather dim memories or picture how it was different here only 30 or 40 years ago.
But that's good! Changes are good! Habits and 'cultures' can change and that is very good if the general direction is positive and more openminded (with the exception of the horrendous suffering of the fish in the nets or on the hooks).
When I lived in the states, I had to live with shoes on inside. I didn’t like that I had to vacuum everyday, sometimes more to keep the floor clean.
i perfectly get the point of implicating a kind of rudeness to the visitor when asking them to take off their shoes BUT as matter of fact there's a saying that goes like:
Germans are to honest to be polite and Americans are to polite to be honest...
and i guess thats why Americans actually think it WOULD be right to ask guests to take off their shoes but you usually don't do that to not hurt anybody's feelings. The more time you gonna spend in Germany the more you will come over to our point of view to this topic...believe me :-)
i really like this saying haha i think it sums it up pretty well. it was a learning point between my boyfriend and i when we started dating lol
In Austria I've never heard anyone asking guests to take their shoess off. But we aks if they want slippers. Maybe that's the polite way to ask them to take off their shoes? ;)
In Poland we wear slippers inside, usually have some to offer to the guests.
in Germany where I lived people did't usually take their shoes off, its clean and everything is paved. not in my house. no shoe zone. now when relatives from Germany come to visit us here in Canada they keep their shoes on, and it makes me crazy, not everything is paved and I really don't need mud and dirt in my house. everyone in Canada takes their shoes off, even when it's not convenient, like delivery people. In Germany I remember someone come in to replace one of our windows wearing muddy shoes it drove me nuts. I guess its not so bad in Germany you can just wipe the floors here in most houses its carpet.
In Canada on Tv it’s mostly just US channels so I always found in weird that cartoon characters and characters hade shoes on
What kind of 'rules' are used for pets in homes where shoes are banned? Are pets required to wear paw covers when taken for walks or what?
I’ve wondered the exact same thing. Someone once commented saying they wash their dogs paws off before coming into the house but unless you’re using maybe like an antibacterial wipe, I cannot imagine the practical logistics of this
I have seen this on several other "German/American" youtube channels: The "Americans are filthy cuz of their shoes" thing. I have a question: Do Germans never go outdoors barefoot? And if they do, what do they do when they go inside? I know the summers are not as hot in Germany as in the US, but do they automatically put on slippers kept by the door after being outside barefoot? Or is it forbidden to be outside with bare feet?
Also, plantar warts & athlete's foot? Yuck!
Interesting! I grew up on an Amish farm in Lancaster, PA. We had really dirty shoes and sometimes we would wear them upstairs! No carpet. We have an Airbnb now and we require guests to take off their shoes. Most appreciate it. I watched your video about Amish. It appears there are a few myths in there as well. Doug is very knowledgeable but he missed a few things. If you come to Pa we would be glad to visit with you. Check out our u-tube video.
Whopper 12 1/2 pound sweet potatoes in Amish country. Something like that.
American here. I don't wear outdoor shoes inside probably because I worked as a nurse and that was the first thing off as well as the uniform clothes into the washer immediately- those shoes were never beyond the front door. Also my dad worked as a refrigeration person so he's going into stores then climbing up on roofs and things like that, so his shoes always came off at the front door. We were just barefoot inside now but that was Florida. Now that I've been living in the north I just put on slippers or socks if my feet are cold and the closest my shoes get is the edge of the living room- that's the first thing to come off me. It always has been. I just keep my shoe rack in the closet by the door I never bring them in but if I was to go outside in shoes and forget something and that something was on the kitchen table I would walk through with the shoes and get the item and walk out;I wouldn't take them off and put them on again. But primarily all of my shoes that I wear outdoors are only worn outdoors .
Do people in Mainz go crazy over Spargel? Or is that a Niedersachsen thing?
people go crazy for it here too from what i've seen :) there's a few spargel stands on my way home from work and a bunch of seasonal spargel menus will be offered at restaurants. it's so good!
Hello Kelly, since you were talking about wrong perception coming from watching tv shows there's something you I'd like to ask you to explain to me. I noticed that f.e. in the Big Bang Theory or in Modern Family etc. people when drinking wine were holding the wine glass with the full hand on the upper part of the glass where the actual wine is. In Germany that would be considered as bad etiquette or poor table manners. Good table manners would mean to hold the glass by its stem to prevent the wine from being warmed up by the body temperature coming from the hand and by this being spoilt and to prevent from leaving nasty fingerprints on the thin polished glass. Is this a wrong perception like you explained with not taking your shoes off in tv shows or do Americans really hold their wine glasses in the described way and simply have a different way of propper drinking manners? I'd very much appreciate your view on this topic. Thanks in advance.
that's a really great question and good observation. i see americans holding wine glasses both at the stem and at the bowl depending on whether they've ever been told that their hands heat up the wine, whether they care if their hands heat up the wine, or whatever they feel more comfortable doing. i know how to properly hold a wine glass, and yet i catch myself grabbing a glass by the bowl a lot if i'm holding the glass for a long time since it's more comfortable and i'm clumsy...the stem feels more easy to drop/slip. i think that in a lot of social circles and in most places, it's just not really seen as a big deal. however, an american that runs in more upper class circles and regularly dines at nice restaurants, etc, will most likely hold their glass at the stem and be more in tuned with "proper etiquette". i hope that answers your question and hopefully another american will come along to answer with their perspective as it may be very different from mine :)
Like I said in the other vid, I have a bad habit of removing my boots and leaving them next to the couch. I also do the thing you mentioned about getting ready, putting shoes on, and then walking to a mirror or somewhere else in the apartment. Drives my wife crazy but shes got an incredibly high tolerance for my silly American mannerisms and behaviors :)
i do the mirror thing allllllll the time in the US. i'll keep my shoes in my bedroom closet, so of course, I would just put them on right there and check my outfit haha glad to your wife is willing to tolerate it :) i feel lucky that my boyfriend is able to tolerate most of my American habits too haha
In Austria we mostly take off our shoes and either walk in socks/barefoot or we wear house shoes
I'm European and we consider it rude when someone comes to your home and does not take their shoes off. I live in Australia and it's sort of 50-50 here but I still always take my shoes off. I think it might sometimes have something to do with weather too. I'm from a cold country where it snows and we also have more wet than dry weather so most of the time your shoes would literally be covered in dirt, mud or just be wet and filthy. Whereas Australia is mostly quite dry and hot so it's not as big of a deal.. bacteria aside of course.
I am an American who recently lived in India for 6 months and ran into this no shoes inside issue also. I found I was super selfconscious about being in another person's house with my feet exposed because that's kinda a private body part for me. At my own house I run around with bare feet or slippers on, but only for comfort because I never really thought of it as a hygiene issue, but rather something that has to do with cleaning. Also, most of us think other people's bare feet are just gross (some are super nasty). I would point out that I don't see why it's an issue of hygiene since we Americans don't usually spend much time on the floor, whereas Indians tend to spend a lot of time in the floor in my experience, though I admit I don't know if that's relevant for Germany. Can it really be an issue of ignorance if it's just different cultures? Nice video, I enjoyed learning a new perspective. Thank you.
I am also incredibly self conscious about my feet and feel so, so awkward walking around someone’s home barefoot. Maybe I would feel differently if I were raised in a culture like Inidia’s or Germany’s...who knows. Thank you for sharing :)
@@Salmagundiii Oh, have you been to India? If so I'm curious which part and where exactly you saw people using the streets as "latrines." The amount of foot and vehicular traffic is unbelievable so I'd be pretty impressed if people were also using those streets to go potty. I'd be even more impressed if they somehow managed to avoid being whacked soundly by some lady who was sweeping the area of the street near her home or business with her broom. But let's pretend it's true that you waded through a river of human excrement as you went back home from running errands. How much do you reckon sandals will protect your feet from all that you just walked through? The majority of Indians are still wearing traditional footwear and even laughed at me for my shoes because it takes more time to put on and remove my shoes than it does them to just slip on and slip off sandals.
Now they do have one pair of household sandals reserved exclusively for bathroom use. Indian bathrooms differ from western bathrooms. Traditional bathrooms have porcelain squatty potties. Next to the toilet may be a variety of spigots, in public restrooms you'll see only one, a bucket, and a small pitcher they'll call a dipper or a mug. The dipper is used to scoop or catch water to pour over yourself to clean after you've finished. In a western style toilet which they refer to as a standing toilet (yeah I know, it's kind of counterintuitive), the seat will also have a bidet controlled by a valve, handle, etc. next to the spigot on the wall. There is also a hose with a spray nozzle along with the other spigots for the same purpose. When finished you either flush with water from the bucket or for a standing toilet you use another valve on the wall. The room is completely tiled from ceiling to floor and gives new meaning to the term "wash room." A drain is set in the floor at the opposite end and there is a sort of squeegee used to clean all the water out of the room and chase it down the drain. All this water is one of the reasons those wearing pants just find it much easier to take their pants off before beginning. The water goes down a drain and ends up in a designated area where it will filter.
Now very poor areas have a few choices. Many choose the train tracks. It's not common to see, but is common practice and even the bathroom on the train just dumps directly onto the track below. Another option is a sort of community hut extended out over water or wetland or at the very least a ditch that will flood come the rainy season. The waste drops directly down into that. If you live away from both of these options you're left with walking a distance away into the shrubbery and finding a place there. In all cases these areas are avoided and not walked in unless absolutely required. They don't usually swim and I don't blame them after seeing what they would be swimming in.
The bottom line here is I've never once seen excrement in the streets as you suggest. Cow dung is collected and either disposed of or dried for fuel. People religiously clean their stoops, porches, and streets near their places. There's a whole class of people (objectionable but true) who's sole job is to walk about cleaning the streets. What I saw walking around India was a lot of paper and plastic baggies littering the ground and dust. Lots and lots and lots of dust. So much dust that I had to wash my white hair scrunchie after one day outside. And this brings me to the real reason they take their sandals and shoes off outside: if they don't they track in dust and there's nothing like an angry mom who just swept that floor for the umpteenth time. Many times they remove their shoes, walk through the house to the bathroom and use one of those handy dandy spigots to rinse the dust off their feet and lower legs. It has nothing to do with walking through feces and urine outside. It's a culture shaped by environment handed down through generations and generations of people. It is so integrated it is intimately intertwined with their religion. It is disrespectful to wear your shoes inside. We can see this in the middle east in Biblical times as well. Moses was told to remove his shoes before approaching the burning bush because the ground he stood on was holy. Indians have a similar concept. You can't walk inside temples in India wearing your shoes for the same reason. Similarly we in western culture doff our hats in church or in other circumstances such as when a man meets a lady or someone due respect.
I could write a whole book on my experience in India, but I'm more curious about you. What is your experience in India? Where did you go that would make you think they didn't have indoor plumbing or make every effort like any civilized society to eliminate or minimize contact and contamination with sewage? What was it that you saw that caused you to think their streets were any less sanitary than the streets of, say, somewhere like Los Angeles or New York City? In those cities you can not only visibly see piles of human waste, you have a good chance of seeing some being deposited.
@@Salmagundiii Is this your really long and convoluted way of delivering the disappointing news that you haven't actually been to India and don't have any personal experience to share besides what you've seen on tv and other such media formats? It's really not a concern and there's no cause for you to get defensive and project your own personal feelings onto me. I didn't write out my observations in India because I was upset with you. Believe it or not some of us just enjoy swapping information. You said it all with this, _"Fortunately, thanks to the miracle of "youtube" and "internet" I don't need to go to a place to know everything about it."_ Yes, yes you do. And most people, I might add, have the common sense to know that, but at the very least they know not to argue with someone who actually knows what they're talking about.
I had to chuckle at the links and quotes you provided. Since I have actual experience with this I know exactly what that fellow is showing and saying and why. Did you know India gained its independence from England in 1947? That's not that long ago, (the older you are the more recent it feels). Ever since then the government has been implementing campaigns to modernize the country. Putting in public bathrooms is one of those programs implemented. I will disagree with the fellow in the video on one point, it is far more common for them to charge a fee in the public bathrooms, especially on the women's side and they'll get you coming and going if you're a foreigner. That being said I strongly suspect it's like the impromptu tolls erected in the middle of roads to, in the words of my Indian friends, "loot the people," and "get money in black."
Anyway, I would strongly suggest you work on your comprehension skills. Not only did you totally misunderstand and misrepresent nearly everything I said, but also the information in the links you provided. The whole point of the video you shared (see his own summary at 11 minutes) was to update your perception of India, answer "foreign trolls," and show that people in India are not pooping in the streets. But for some reason you've decided to come away with a completely contrary take.
The blurb you provided addressed the need for, "Information on diarrheal diseases, its determinants and preventive and control strategies need to be reviewed for better planning and organization of health services." Where exactly did it say the source of childhood diarrheal diseases is caused by people deficating in the roads? You do realize a big cause of diarrhea is food poisoning caused by things like a failure to wash your hands properly and mishandling the food, right? Other causes are disease carrying mosquitoes and flies. It's not because everyone just poops and pees in the street.
As far as misrepresenting me, I never once said I was a) upset with you, b) that I found India to be "neat and tidy," c) that you are racist, d) considered this to be a political topic in even the remotest way, or e) weighing in on hygienic pros and cons of removing shoes in the house and my subsequent support or lack thereof one way or the other.
You keep saying you're sorry whilst giving the distinct and resounding impression the complete opposite is true. You point the accusatory finger at yourself by assuming I assumed things about you. I have no difficulty or qualms about openly and blatantly calling it like I see it. You won't have to read between lines or play guessing games with me. In the end your whole point is obscured by sarcasm, derision, and contradiction. I have no idea if you're telling me off because you think I believe taking one's shoes off indoors increases or decreases germs inside. One thing I do know is you have no idea what I think about it either because I never advocated for or against it. You're apparently just looking to cause discord. A little advice: put down your device and go get some real experience. It's pretty obvious it would do you some good.
@@Salmagundiii Just because something is long doesn't mean it's convoluted. The issue I have with your responses is not the length, but rather the fact that your point is completely obscured by rantings that literally don't make sense and are factually false. I told you I have no idea why you're blowing a head gasket, be it because you're for taking your shoes off inside or against it and why it even matters in the first place. You've taken issue with a four year old comment and managed to insult and denegrate such an impressively wide swath of people it's mind boggling. You've attempted to support your nonsense with videos that actually disprove you, blurbs that just say diarrheal diseases are a problem and poor hygiene is an issue, and a column by an opinion piece author. None of these support your claim that Indians routinely deficate right in the middle of the street and must therefore remove their sandals and shoes before entering their houses. Neither have you successfully managed to link hygiene related diarrheal diseases with your ludicrous claim that Indians relieving themselves in the streets is a common place practice.
The plethora of accusations coming out of you only amplifies the reality that you have not a single leg to stand on. You've put on full display your astounding level of ignorance, lack of character, and somehow even managed to underwhelm us with one of the most impotent exhibitions of flexing from a RUclips troll I've seen in a long time. Standing up for truth is not "virtue signaling." Telling you Indians do not just use the streets to go to the bathroom is not the same as saying India is "neat and tidy." Living in another country for a time neither makes one "morally superior," nor does, "do[ing] your time in the non-western world," give any cause to brag. Sharing and referencing past experience does not equal guilt of aforementioned "offenses." Unfortunately for you, no amount of projecting your feelings and imposing your views onto me will ever make me the owner of them. Buzz words like 'virtue signaling,' your use of initialisms such as 'OTOH,' and 'LMAO,' claiming RUclips account seniority, touting you're probably older than me, and referring to your 'higher education,' all reinforce my impression of you being, at best, nothing more than a 20 something kid who thinks the whole world revolves around them and makes it a point to get personally offended when anyone else disagrees with them. What's more is these are all pathetic attempts to demean and devalue my replies to you, a pretty good indicator you don't actually have any proof for your position. And no I will not be taking *your* argument up with your opinion columnist B S Raghavan, or did you forget you're actually the one who confronted me, not the other way around?
You made a false claim about a country you've never been to and then tried to support your claim with irrelevant introductory paragraphs you called research articles, a RUclips video who actually agreed with me not you, and an opinion article written by some person without any credentials. You've actually lied repeatedly. You linked the video because it's so wrong it proves your claims and the comments support that? You just thought I would be cowed by the mere presence of a link; instead I looked it up and you were wrong. You know MANY people who've gone to India and saw people pooping in the streets? No you don't, and no they didn't. If you know ANYONE who went to India they went to the tourist destinations which are paid special attention to so as to impress the foreigners. I purposely lived far away from those places so I would have an authentic experience. You're older than me? You know what those kids say, "LMAO?" Yeah, I was actually loudly laughing at you for a while. I actually had to stop reading and compose myself. And that, "Now that you've so foolishly forced my hand," bit? You should be a comedian when you grow up. Actions speak louder than words. If you truly are older, (irrelevant, but whatever), your immaturity for a person your age is staggering. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt though and assume your a pathetic kid who hasn't reached the age where he figures out he's a moron and all the things he thought he knew he doesn't really know. Dearheart, if you're really older than I am, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. If not you'll get all bent out of shape over that comment. Stop lying and learn when to keep your mouth shut when you don't know what you're talking about.
You know, let's end this. I'm actually a really nice person IRL and on-line, usually. I just obviously picked the wrong person mentioning India to riff on my opinions about where it might make MORE sense to remove one's shoes that some other places. My characterization was incorrect. There I've said it. You as someone who has traveled extensively in India, knows the streets are not "used as laetrines" and I shouldn't have said that they were. My apologies.
She says its rude becuse it implements that they are dirty, but to think somones house is dirty or not a good enought to walk around without shoes is also rude. right?
Great video! I totally agree with you.
My POV: I am American. I've traveled more than most, so I've seen other cultures. I have indoor shoes and outdoor shoes. I have friends and relatives who have a strict "no shoes indoor" policy, while most do not. None of us put our shoes on the furniture. I think that the people I know would be overwhelmed by the information that shoes are loaded with toxins and bacteria, and just dismiss the thought that they should now stop and remove their shoes at the door. With the number of times kids and adults run in and out of the house on weekends and in the summer, it would be too much effort. I think we are bombarded with so much health information in the media, "Do this!" "Don't do that", that we are at a saturation point. No one knows what to believe, and who is exaggerating risk. Again, great video!
thank you!! :) and thanks for sharing. i'm totally with you on this bombardment of health information, especially when it comes to food. it's exhausting.
I fully agree on the health (mis-)information bombardment! Personally, I'm not so convinced that bacteria or toxins on your shoes are really a big deal, unless you got kids over the floor of course. We get bacteria from pretty much everywhere, food, shaking hands, kissing, coughing, keyboards etc. and bacteria on the floor doesn't sound like a big deal to me in comparison. For the toxins the same thing, we probably got lots of other sources for that, that are far more important.
I see the point from both here commentors here, I'm an Icelander currently living in Japan, where both cultures have a strict no shoes indoors policy. Even schools in both countries will not let students wear shoes inside until college/university level. To me the most disgusting thing about it is when people have carpeted flooring and don't take off their shoes inside (BRITAIN). In Japan its the tatami caused this culture thing, in Iceland I'm not sure where it comes from. Probably the Dutch or Denmark cuz mud floors were still a thing until the 1940's. I think if children are raised on this its no big deal, shoes are for outside, socks or house shoes for indoors. Often if there is a event going on birthday party or such people will not take their shoes off in Iceland but usually it is only if they are told " ohh you don't have to take off your shoes" but then the floor will just be cleaned afterwards, and as its usually hard wood or tiles its no big deal. But shoes on a carpet that is a cringe worthy thing to me.
I'm American and usually take my shoes off on the back porch and go bare foot in the house. We have friends that insist that guests take their shoes off at the door (they have many oriental rugs). They entertain frequently, and on the invitation they always warn the guest that they will need to take their shoes off, in case they want to bring slippers. So the first time we visited, we got there and took our shoes off outside the front door. When we go to leave, one of my wife's shoes is missing. Their dog decided that he wanted the shoe so he took it and hid it. So my wife had to go home with only one shoe - never did find the shoe. That was about 10 years ago, and we are still friends.
hahaha thanks for sharing that story. i'm sorry for your wife losing a shoe, but it definitely made me laugh. glad to hear you're still friends in spite of it!
Ok, so this is the point of view from a European perspective (eastern european-balkans), this is how most people do it here or at least all of the people I know do this. I'm also an Architect and so is my girlfriend and we implement most of these things one way or another when designing houses and apartments.
Yes in 99% of cases we take off our shoes when entering a private house (we don't go to extremes like the Japanese and take them off in schools and public buildings).
1. From my experience it is mostly because in European houses there are usually carpets in living and sleeping areas compared to US houses where it is rare from what I have seen.
(someone mentioned in the comments how there is dirt beneath carpets, that is why when you clean your house you take out your carpet and either wash it or shake it off and vacuum underneath it, depending on how dirty it is or how often you clean)
2. We usually have a clearly defined "dirty" zone which occupies a part of the entryway hallway and is usually defined by the lenght of the shoe closet that sits on one of the walls. Also right next to this dirty zone is a WC where you should wash your hands before entering the house (if you are a guest you do not have to do this, but you do it if you expect to eat something).
Disclaimer: Some people have a central hallway and because there are rooms all around leading from it they sometimes require you to take your shoes off before entering the hallway, in that case they usually have slippers for you to wear before crossing the door treshold or have a carpet in the hallway, this is only for houses in my experience and not apartments (although I have seen some strange cases where there are shoes lined up in the stairway in front of someones apartment door). There is a part of these houses that we call Vetrobran (windshield) which is a small area with just a door used as a heat buffer and to prevent cold or hot winds-air entering into your house easily. This is where you take your shoes off in cases of central hallways.
3.Before entering a house you have a doormat, which is mainly used to clean off any mud or other outside dirt that is clearly visible and thus reduce the severity of cleaning required in the hallway of the house.
4. Some houses (have not really seen it in appartments) have a "Guest" zone which is basically a living room really close to the entryway and it has hard flooring without carpets so they don't mind shoes inside since they will probably be cleaning that area after you leave with floor cleaner anyways. But that means you won't be going to the "private" areas such as the kitchen or bedroom but will most likely have a WC right next where you can wash your hands. In case it is really muddy outside you won't be asked necessarily to take off your shoes but it might be looked down upon if you enter with clearly dirty shoes.
5. Kelly mentioned styling and looking in the mirror. For this purpose there is usually a wardrobe right in the "dirty" zone next to the shoe closet or above it (sometimes they sell furniture where the shoe closet is connected to the wardrobe which sits above it). Next to this wardrobe there is usually a long mirror so that you can check your outdoor clothes combination. In the case of the combined furniture the mirror is a part of it, and there are also hangers which are usually for jackets that you are currently using or for guests while your other jackets are hanged in the closed wardrobe.
Disclaimer: Since we also usually keep our clothes (not including jackets and coats) in our bedroom there is either a bathroom connected to this bedroom with a big mirror or often there is a mirror on the inner side of the wardrobe where you keep your clothes in the bedroom so you can check your shirts and pants.
6. For houses in the countryside or town houses with bigger yards there is another windshield buffer zone where you have your backyard shoes-slippers, that zone is a seperate entryway into the house and it usually is on the other side of the street doorway. Some houses where the backyard is between the house and the street won't have this buffer zone but you will also most likely have some sort of backyard shoes or slippers.
7. Someone mentioned hypocrisy about talking off your shoes but not your clothes when entering the house. This is almost never required of a guest (unless you are sleeping over a couple of nights) but people usually have indoor clothes, these are old comfortable clothes that you wear inside and sometimes to your backyard and it is what you change into when coming from outside (mainly trainers(pants), sweatpants, baggy shirts...), also there is a seperate wardrobe-closet or sometimes simply a chair where you put your outside clothes that you wore before switching into the indoor clothes since putting it back into your wardrobe with your other clotches is looked down upon because you are basicly putting clean clotches together with dirty clothes.
8. Finally to make this whole process of taking shoes on and of a lot of people have, shoe spoons-shoe horns, which ease and expedite the process.
Indoors we wear slippers or in some eastern european countries when it is winter we wear "Popke" which are basically wool knitted slippers that you slip into with your socks on and it keeps your feet warm. Outdoors for backyard activities unless its really dirty (like gardening or farm jobs) we wear crocks because they are easy to slip in and out of. Finally in my personal experience when you are going to someones house aside from looking your finest you are also thinking of wearing easy shoes (shoes that are easy to get in and out of).
In the UK, we are the same as the Americans, but there again, this should be no surprise to anyone. I wear bedroom slippers in my house, but do not have the audacity to expect a visitor to take his shoes off, or bring his own slippers. That's what vacuum cleaners and carpet shampooers are for. (and Polish cleaning ladies). Bloody continentals😉
In Russia and East Slavic houses everyone takes of thier shoes in their home...I was shocked in the beginning when we movies to US and everyone wore shoes indoors
I am from Belgium, we take off our shoes and coats and drop our bags and go wash our hands. (then go to toilet and wash our hands again).
When we have visitors, a lot of people have "pantoffels" (slippers) ready that are only used by visitors, sometimes even disposable ones (thin clinic like slippers), to give to their guests. That way the visitor is not left with smelly socks or dirty feet to show to everyone, nor does he/she walk around with sweaty feet on our floors...
But I am sure there are as many people who let their guests keep their shoes on.
You can walk on you knees in your own home if you wish but never ask a guest to remove any part of their wardrobe off.
I said on previous video...many Americans do not wear shoes in the house, we know you don't pretend to speak for all Americans, none of us do. Many in the military do not wear shoes in the house, and many take off their work shoes and leave them outside.
They are dirty...try it no shoes in the house, if you have rocks in the treads they can scratch your wood or tile. I was so used to not wearing shoes in the house, when I would go to friends or relatives houses; they almost seemed embarrassed and would say Don't take your shoes off.
My main point on your other video was that there was not such a big difference in German vs American apartments...btw the videos are still enjoyable.
thank you! i'm glad you enjoy them :) thanks for sharing
'Ami' is just short for 'Amerikaner', a little bit flippantly; I don't consider this term to be Hate-speech. Even I use it occasionly, and I'm very much Pro-American
To me it's just weird that anyone would keep their shoes on inside in their own home. The first thing I want to do when I get home (after taking of my jacket) is getting rid of those foot-prisons. If I'm about to head out and already put my shoes on, I will sometimes walk around with shoes inside. Or if I came home from grocery shopping and my first priority is getting the frozen stuff inside the fridge. But the idea of coming home and walking straight to the living room and sitting on the couch with my shoes still on is just weird. Not so much because of cleanliness (though that might also be a factor if it has been raining and my shoes are still wet), but primarily because it's not really comfortable. On the other hand if I'm at someone else's house, I'd rather keep my shoes on.
Every Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Chinese have to take off their shoes in their house.
If you just walked in their house while your shoes take in, It would be so disrespectful behavior.
If I do that my mother's place, she would told me only thieves or rubber do that.
we even don't wear our indoor slipper if we going to bed.
becuz basically we just think all of shoes is kind of dirty except it is new
I refuse to let Europeans shame me for wearing my shoes inside. Like, bro, I shower every day, unlike all of you guys. Don't lecture me about about cleanliness.
Wow, you shower every day? We only do that like once a month... Ironic that the nation so obsessed with ultra white teeth, hygiene, etc. wears their filthy shoes inside their homes...
I have seen how some streets look like in the USA, it's not pretty.
@@alex_inside Like I said, I refuse to be lectured on cleanliness when i cleanse myself every day.
But why would you leave on your shoes?
They get smelly and shoes feel uncomfortable oO
I have to wear shoes due to a brain injury that left me with mild balance issues and tremors in my legs.
Many of us where shoes indoors and yet we live, it can't be that bad for us! Frequent handwashing and having clean kitchen/bathroom counters are more important imo.
We have a basket of indoor slippers right by the door so if guests feel uncomfortable being barefoot, they can take a pair.
From what you've said it seems that the US is similar to Italy in this respect. When one has guests good manners say the host (and most certainly the guests!) should be have shoes on and be wearing something elegant (no 'house clothes' for guests, at least in general)
I'm indian, we remove our shoes outside, wash our feet and hands and mostly walk in house barefeet
Why is it so difficult for people to respect other people's homes? My house my rules. YOUR house, YOUR rules.
I don’t know what your experience has been, but I don’t feel like it’s that difficult for people if they’re aware of the rules...
In my house, I never wear shoes inside and always only wear socks. When I’m going to someone else’s house, if the host is wearing shoes then I will keep my shoes on. If they aren’t, I automatically know to take them off.
Hi,I'm german and I allways off my shoes before I come inside.I find it rude that all my german friends don't off their shoes before coming into my flat.Thats disappointing.
Hey¡ I live in the states. I see u guys wearing shoes inside all the time. It is a common thing in us.
In Canada I hosted many parties of 15-30 people and pretty much everyone takes off their shoes lol. Drunk smokers would usually just take other peoples shoes if they can't find their own.
That's funny. Drinking and smoking will cause much more problems than shoes, but you allow them.
@@imnotabotrlyimnot It's a party, so there's going to be drinking and some people smoke. It's not that I don't allow shoes in the house, some people still keep their shoes. I was just commenting that even in a situation where keeping shoes on would make sense, most still take their shoes off out of habit, even if the shoes get chaotic.
@@imnotabotrlyimnot If someone's going to someone else's house, they take off their shoes with thinking about it. I can't even remember a time I asked someone to take off their shoes. It's kind of like if you go to someone's home, and you close the door behind you. Or you go to someone's washroom and open the lights, you'd usually close the lights when you leave. It's one of those habits that you learn as a kid and don't think about it. I commented on this video because I was told Americans don't take off their shoes and you can see it even on tv shoes. Then I looked up Big Bang theory and saw some cartoons and realized I've been watching tv with characters wearing their shoes. It never even occurred to me you can keep on your shoes in the house.