S.F.
I grew up in the US, but my Chinese mom always made us take our shoes off at home for no reason other than our carpet’s cleanliness; but she wouldn’t let us be barefoot in the house either (because the carpet was STILL too dirty for our feet)…I had to wear house slippers, or else I’d get yelled at. To Rebekah: maybe since Canadians are more likely to have stepped in the slushy sludgy snow than Australians/etc, they take their shoes off? My originally-Canadian friend and I recently went to Montreal in late winter, when the snow was almost all gone, and he didn’t mind my walking around the hotel room in my shoes on most of the time, but after we had walked through some snow that day, he made me take them off–even though it was just a hotel room!
Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences