What a nice gesture to international students unfamiliar with sit-down toilets. Auckland University are converting some of their loos into the squat variety. Personally, I wouldn't object as long as I get to choose. Sometimes one is just not dressed ideally for squatting. Skirts and flat shoes, no problem. Long, wide-leg pants and high-heels, maybe not.
Having experienced such facilities on my travels, I'd certainly agree that it's much more hygenic if one's bum doesn't have to touch anything which has already been sat on by another bum. (My short legs make it difficult for me to execute that manoeuvre I've heard about amongst other women - that one where you have your feet on the ground and yet still avoid resting your bum on the toilet seat.)
It's also a good exercise in flexibility, I've been told.
5 comments:
thats odd...in japan, the transition from those squat variety to western style toilets was seen as major progress-hard to believe AU wants to go to them...i found them more sanitary when i lived there, but a bit hard on the knees...and yeah, wearing the right clothes is key.
I remember squat toilets from Japan when I was little- and the above statement is so true. Squat toilets are just wrong on many levels!!
The article says that squat toilets are more to accomodate students from rural areas, where they haven't moved on to the sit-down ones. Obviously it's just a matter of whatever you're used to. I'm sure that Shanghainese women in cheong sams also had to manage with squat toilets, and we all know how restricting those garments are, eh?
Sounds to me like the Auckland University has way to much money.
Isn't part of the reason you'd go overseas to get an education, a chance to experience another culture?
An what happens if these hapless students get caught short whilst at McDonalds in Queen Street? Do they have to rush back to the Uni just to have a familiar toilet to hover over........?
You're absolutely right, onscreen. But I can think of lots of examples of people wanting to experience something familiar from home e.g British pubs in Spain, fish'n'chips in Greece (also an English thing), Kiwis craving marmite in Europe, Christians wanting to build churches in countries where people already have a religion...the list goes on...
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