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chiccme
Just Starting
Joined: 23 Feb 2008
Posts: 1
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 Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:29 pm Post subject: Taking Shoes Off At The Door? |
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My roommate is Russian. She says her mother always had them take their shoes off at the door, and never wear shoes in the house. So I agreed to do the same. And even though I wipe my shoes off impeccably I still am not allowed to run up the stairs real quick in them if I've forgotten something.
I have to stop and untie them and take them off, and then put them back on and tie them again. And yet she doesn't clean her part of the house very well.
Is all this Russian customs? Or just her family and her?
I am trying to understand her better.
Thanks,
Chiccme |
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Anna
Lounge Lizard
Joined: 11 Apr 2004
Posts: 85
Location: St. Petersburg, Russia
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:37 am Post subject: |
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It's not exactly a custom, it's a norm here to take off shoes at the door. You know, for me it was a cultural shock in the US - NOT to take my shoes off at the front door. I think it took me about a month to get used to that!  |
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darthvader
WayToRussified
Joined: 09 Dec 2005
Posts: 423
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 5:17 am Post subject: |
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The norm/custom is a vital necessity. Unlike drier Australia for example, everytime you walk into a Russian dwelling in Autumn, Winter and Spring, you are seriously walking mud and water into the place. Yet, surely this is the same for Northern Europe and Canada........
Anyway, as a foreigner, I've never known mopping floors in shops and malls to be an "unceasing" activity for nearly 24-hours a day.
However, one feels that the shoes off/shoes on business, like with removing and retrieving coats (not to mention getting/returning coatroom tokens!) would use a total of 2 years of one's life, considering all the time this takes  |
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CAjules
Frequent Guest
Joined: 12 Dec 2007
Posts: 51
Location: California
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 9:01 am Post subject: Re: Taking Shoes Off At The Door? |
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| Hello, I am not Russian but it's not only a Russian tradition to take your shoes off at the door...it's like that in Canada, I'm French and it's always been like that at our home too. I am learning about some russian customs and some are similar to my own, some are different. it's very interesting!!!! |
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jo jo 7
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
Posts: 3248
Location: Louisville,Kentucky
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:53 pm Post subject: Re: Taking Shoes Off At The Door? |
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| CAjules wrote: | | Hello, I am not Russian but it's not only a Russian tradition to take your shoes off at the door...it's like that in Canada, I'm French and it's always been like that at our home too. I am learning about some russian customs and some are similar to my own, some are different. it's very interesting!!!! |
It is the same in my house as well. I am a southern woman from America and growing up we were not allowed to wear our shoes in the house. Before you entered my mother's house you had to wipe your feet and take your shoes off. I never wear my shoes in the house now. I am barefooted or I wear slippers.
Honestly, when a woman cleans the house she doesn't want you tramping on her clean floor with dirty shoes. Common sense. I don't know if this is why it is in Russia, maybe it is a different reason there or just custom, but I seen what happened when my ex-brother-n-law came in my sisters house once with muddy shoes, after she just cleaned the floor. He ate beans for dinner that night from a can. |
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jo jo 7
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
Posts: 3248
Location: Louisville,Kentucky
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 3:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Anna wrote: | | It's not exactly a custom, it's a norm here to take off shoes at the door. You know, for me it was a cultural shock in the US - NOT to take my shoes off at the front door. I think it took me about a month to get used to that! |
Mostly Southern America you take your shoes off when entering or at least it was in my house or when going over to a friends house...it is strange that when I enter my Russian friends home here in America...sometimes I have to take my shoes off and sometimes I don't...I feel strange walking in her home with my shoes on..I told her that it is common for me to walk without shoes in a home because I was raised that way so when I attempt to take my shoes off, she says...HeT, HeT, my floor is dirty!....hehehehe.. |
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CAjules
Frequent Guest
Joined: 12 Dec 2007
Posts: 51
Location: California
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| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 8:09 pm Post subject: Re: Taking Shoes Off At The Door? |
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| jo jo 7 wrote: |
...I don't know if this is why it is in Russia, maybe it is a different reason there or just custom, but I seen what happened when my ex-brother-n-law came in my sisters house once with muddy shoes, after she just cleaned the floor. He ate beans for dinner that night from a can. |
Ha! Beans from a can...I love it! I would hate that too, after cleaning my floor!! |
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european
Frequent Guest
Joined: 24 Oct 2007
Posts: 48
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:06 am Post subject: |
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| In Hawaii all people take their shoes of before entering a house. Outside are special places to put the shoes. |
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Coke123
Frequent Guest
Joined: 28 May 2005
Posts: 30
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| Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 4:29 am Post subject: |
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| Why wouldn't you take off your shoes before entering your home? All that shit, spit and bacteria you step on every second you're outdoors and you want to bring them back inside your home? |
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mister_wizzz
VIP
Joined: 27 May 2004
Posts: 580
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| Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 1:18 pm Post subject: |
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| european wrote: | | In Hawaii all people take their shoes of before entering a house. Outside are special places to put the shoes. |
In Tahiti it is the same, it is impossible entering a house with shoes.
I think it is coming from Maori culture. |
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jo jo 7
Lounge Wizard
Joined: 05 Nov 2006
Posts: 3248
Location: Louisville,Kentucky
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| Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 4:17 pm Post subject: |
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Most people (women) would like for a person to take their shoes off in the house...common sense! Any woman who cares and cleans will want shoes "off" when a person is walking on the floor...it drives me crazy when someone wears shoes on my carpet, it feels as if there is a sense of unease in the house.
I don't know anyone who wants mud and nasty things on the bottom of your shoes on the carpet or wood floor. Some common sense that luckily turned into a tradition. |
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Miami
WayToRussified
Joined: 27 Feb 2006
Posts: 333
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| Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:15 pm Post subject: Re: Taking Shoes Off At The Door? |
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| chiccme wrote: | My roommate is Russian. She says her mother always had them take their shoes off at the door, and never wear shoes in the house. So I agreed to do the same. And even though I wipe my shoes off impeccably I still am not allowed to run up the stairs real quick in them if I've forgotten something.
I have to stop and untie them and take them off, and then put them back on and tie them again. And yet she doesn't clean her part of the house very well.
Is all this Russian customs? Or just her family and her?
I am trying to understand her better.
Thanks,
Chiccme |
Sometimes they have extra house shoes (slippers) available. So, you take your real shoes off at the door, then put slippers on to walk around the flat. |
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