As this is a blog about my Korean American experience, let’s start at the foundation.

Norcross, GA - it is a city about 20 minutes outside of Atlanta for families who want that nice minivan with that nice, cookie-cutter home and that nice ordinary life.

And if there ever was anything out of the ordinary, you could find out all the hot goss with the moms at the tennis courts the next day.

Norcross, GA - it is the place where I grew up.

Early on in my childhood, I never really thought about race. I guess I was lucky because my nextdoor neighbors were Japanese, Indian, and Chinese-Vietnamese. Therefore, for a long time, I thought it was normal to take off your shoes when you go into someone’s home. I thought it was normal to use chopsticks during meals. I thought it was normal to find rice cookers in people’s kitchens. 

However, for all of y’all who know Norcross, GA, there are really only a handful of Asians. 

This realization came quickly once I started having oddly uncomfortable conversations with newly acquainted friends who wanted to come over to my house. 

Here’s the scenario that would happen many times throughout my childhood:

It is my friend’s first time coming over to my house. They knock on the door. I let them in. 

They walk in. 

They walk straight in.

They walk straight in without stopping to TAKE OFF THEIR SHOES.

You can imagine my horror as they would just strut into my living room and lay on my couch with shoes that have travelled to God knows where - just the thought of it makes me recoil as I am writing this blog post.

THINK ABOUT IT - You wear your shoes through mud, water, pee, poop, etc.

WHY would you ever want to wear those inside your home? 

Anyways, my friend would just make themself right at home and ask what was on the TV. And I would sit there in horror as my mom is giving me that “you need to tell them to take off their shoes or else YOU will have to clean up their tracks once they’re gone” look. 

So yeah, I would slowly and awkwardly in the middle of a commercial break tell them that my family doesn’t wear shoes in the house.

And they’d, of course, be overly apologetic about wearing their shoes inside, to which I would also be overly apologetic for calling them out on wearing shoes inside my house.  And then we would both have to get off the couch, go back to the front door, and I would have to stand there and watch as my friend would unlace their shoes.

Finally, we would head back to the living room. And just when I thought all the awkwardness had dissipated, my friend would stop in my kitchen.

They would point and say, “What is that?

Me: “Oh, it’s our rice cooker.”

Friend: “Isn’t that what the stove is for?”

Me: “...?”

Have these conversations and situations become less awkward? Slightly.

Have my friends started to instinctively take off their shoes before they enter my home? Yes.

Have my friends asked their parents for a rice cooker? Absolutely.

Disclaimer: Please know I am not trying to make fun of you if you have grown up wearing your shoes inside your house. I totally understand. But just know that when you’re at my house, you have to TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES.