I guess it is important to have buckle on, velcro or slip on style shoes when you are in a place or know this is the norm and regular. I had some casual sneakers at various times that were able to be slipped on and off… but i do find that wears out the back of the shoe faster 🙁

I’ve been stuck in the same getting left behind thing many times too….

haha I do the sneaky ‘i forgot something so have to run back inside with my shoes on’ thing… luckily there was never any children to point it out hehehe

haha yes a clean floor is also useful in those circumstances!

Oh no problem! ^_^

Haha yeah, if I’m not mistaken, Americans also used to call them thongs, but I guess it fell out of use here after the word became so strongly associated with the underwear! xD

My family (along with most other Vietnamese-background families) does most of their eating and sitting up above the floor actually, even though we still take off our shoes. xD However, I’ve heard that it was not uncommon in Vietnam itself for people to need to sleep on the floor in many cases, so I suppose that keeping a clean floor was useful for that purpose too!

Thanks for your reply! That’s interesting. I know Australians like flip flops- except we call them thongs here – not to be confused with the underwear called that!
Does your family do most things on the floor? That’s one of the big reasons for no shoes inside Korean homes, so much of the living -sitting, eating, sleeping- is done on the floor, so it makes sense for no shoes. Whereas in Australian homes everything is done up off the floor so not as much need for the floor to be spotless. Thanks for explaining about Vietnamese-Americans- it’s really interesting. I like hearing about merging cultures.

However, it has traditionally been an easy practice for the Vietnamese to take off their “shoes” at home, since flip-flops were much more common than the more expensive regular true shoe. Most people could not afford many pairs of true shoes — sometimes they had trouble even affording one pair — so they saved their shoes for special occasions and wore cheaper flip-flops for everyday stuff. And of course, by nature, flip-flops are quick and easy to put on and take off, and we don’t need to sit down or use our hands to do it. =P

I’m Vietnamese-American, and of course laced regular shoes are widely used in America (including by us Vietnamese-Americans). But we still go barefoot in the house. So the thing that my family does is to always have a few pairs of cheap flip-flops by the door at home. This allows us (and whatever guests we might have) to go in and out of the yard quickly and easily, and therefore outside-living is quick and easy. Our laced, regular shoes are saved for actually leaving the house’s yard vicinity to go to work, school, shopping, driving around, visiting other people and places, etc. etc. (i.e. situations and public places in which shoes are more appropriate, and/or where you are not going to take shoes off and on frequently).

It’s a nice balance and it works for us. =D I dunno if Koreans and Australians like flip-flops as much as Vietnamese people do lol, but if flip-flops are allowed and easily available, maybe you can try that (if you haven’t thought of it already, of course).

Hi! It’s nice to meet others who have the same experiences, and I’m glad someone else gets stressed with the shoe thing. Koreans get their shoes on so fast!
My Korean is still beginner. Not like basic beginner more like heading to intermediate but it’s still so hard. I can say some things to his family but it’s very limited. Like just the sentences I’ve already memorised. I’m slowly improving so hopefully one day I’ll be able to have a conversation……. one day!

We live in the north in a small seaside town where its wet and cold for much of the year. The roads and footpaths are often extremely muddy. There are also quite a lot of new houses all with light and expensive wall to wall carpets. Obviously, shoes have to come off. As it can be very cold to go without slippers can make ones feet very cold, which is uncomfortable. So i suppose that’s why many bring a pair with them. I was brought up in affluent Surrey and we always took off our shoes and usually put slippers on. I do remember that most homes preferred shoes off. I have never been to a home that offered guest slippers though. Personally I wouldn’t be too keen on wearing them.