Surely this sign is unnecessary - Indonesia

[hotelinfo]

On a very small (but quite well-known) islsnd, but lots if tourists. Not much going on today, as you can probably tell, so I'm posting this sign in the hotel room bathroom.

Obviously crouching loos are common in some areas, but who really needs to be told not to crouch on a hotel loo seat?

Our office once had a sign up asking people not to stand on toilet seats so maybe this was going on

It needs to be in Air India toilets

Idle curiosity, having reached the point where my knees creak somewhat even getting up from a western stye loo - how do people manage with crouching when they reach that stage? If I got down to crouch I'm not sure I'd be able to stand up again.

I was going to ask how the arthritic of knee manage, too.

There's no way I could squat, and in the unlikely event that I managed to, I'd never get up again.

Very common abroad.

Based on my sample of self, friends and family (SE Asian), if you have been squatting your whole life, it is not considered difficult or uncomfortable - quite the reverse in fact, it's how many people have a rest after walking/standing for too long.

You’re in an Asian country and the signs will be tailored to Asians rather than Europeans.

I saw one of these exact signs at a UK university (I think it was Surrey) last year during our round of open days!

Tell me you don’t understand cultural differences without telling me you don’t understand cultural differences.

We have this sign in the adult education college in my London Borough.

I've only seen it in China before in places that had both Western style and squat toilets available.

We have these signs where I work and because of the industry we were have lots of people from different cultures passing through and they keep breaking the toilet seats by standing on them.

You need to try a squat loo on a train, complete with lines speeding by underneath 😱.

I saw it in a McDonald's in New York

Yes, when I taught at an English university we had them in the building I taught it (which also had large numbers of Asian students doing pre-sessional English competency classes before starting their studies).

They’re common in lots of countries, and I’ve seen them in the U.K. too. Squatting is so normal, and sitting is just so weird and unhygienic, people won’t want to adjust.

I always ask myself of signs in UK toilets, ‘who needs to be told not to flush a nappy?’ But here we are.

They have those signs in a DHL warehouse (UK).... according to the person who works there and told me it makes no difference.. the seats are always hanging off and there's shit everywhere....
We never used to need them.

Here we go...

@hotelinfo have you not come across the hole in the floor toilets yet?? they are for the women wearing their black full length abaya!!! they dont tend to sit down to wee!!

Yep.

More than 20 years ago in a nightclub in Australia where I studied (and partied), I shared a toilet with a clubbing friend. It was one of those drunken "I need to pee hurry up!" moments... she show me how to balance squatting on the toilet bowl... in heels. I was both impressed and disgusted 😁

Oh the irony of flying halfway round the world and yet being oblivious to the fact that there are different cultural norms in your destination than at home.

As our son says 'there's only a sign because at least one person has done it'...

Did it really not occur to you that you have not experienced every culture in the world and that this sign might be necessary for some people?

Did you really think that places put up these signs for no reason just in case it ever occurred to anyone to equal instead of sit?

Or did you just want to go to another country so you could demean other peoples cultures and customs?

We have those signs in the loos where I work (in the UK) because we have a lot of visitors who have to travel to us from countries where it’s normal to have ground level toilets where you squat rather than sit. (They often feel that sitting on a toilet seat and wiping with paper is unhygienic - the norm for them is to stand and squat over a low toilet and then wash properly with water, which actually probably is more hygienic, to be fair.)

Similarly in lots of countries it’s not acceptable to flush toilet paper (much as it’s not acceptable to flush sanitary pads in the UK) so it’s helpful to explain that you should flush it here rather than put it in the sanitary bin.

I’m not sure what your issue is. It’s a sign explaining how something works. I’m fairly sure if you travelled to a country where everyday essential things like toilets are bafflingly different to what you’re used to, you’d appreciate the guidance. It’s like having a sign in (eg) Japan telling you to take shoes off indoors - Japanese people don’t need the signs because it would never even occur to them to wear shoes indoors, but western visitors don’t necessarily know the etiquette.