Toilet habits and such is quite much of a taboo, even though quite much can be written about it. There is a lot I'd like to write, but as for now I'm "just" going to comment on two (Norwegian) stories from one of our news outlets.
Squatting on a sitting toilet and other cultural clashes
The first one claims that Asian tourists does not understand Norwegian toilets, and another article on a rather costly overflow in a toilet, also in a shopping centre, due to a new trend that ladies leave the water running to mask sounds while they are peeing.
From the first article - a shopping center at one of the prime tourist destinations in Norway set up this sign on the toilet, due to problems with footprints on the toilet ring:
Picture stolen from NRK.no
The article states that ...
Tourists from the Chinese country-side is not familiar with modern toilets, they usually have only primitive toilets where they come from
... and that was even a quote from a Chinese tourist guide.
Indeed, people standing on the toilet ring is a real problem, also (maybe especially) in China. Not only that the ring gets dirty, but it's also dangerous - people do fall down sometimes - and quite often - particularly when having contagious stomach problems - some of the things that gets out may end up other places than in the toilet bowl. However, I seriously doubt the reason is that they don't know how to use the toilet - I do believe the squatting is more of a personal preference - plus perhaps due to a fear that the toilet ring may be dirty. If this really happens frequently enough that it's needed to put up a sign - then I believe I have a better suggestion, install a squatting toilet! For westerners that have always been using sitting toilets, it may seem primitive and "cheap", but it has some benefits - it's much easier to clean than a sitting toilet, and I believe it's healthier and certainly more natural to squat than sit on the ring.
According to the picture men are also supposed to sit down while peeing. That seems to be a trend in the time - and I also see that urinals are becoming out of fashion - new gents toilets are often with only sitting toilets and no urinals, and in old toilets the urinals are sometimes removed. What's this, the equality idea gone a bit too far? To me, I don't really consider sitting down to pee as an option, and I also think it's better to pee in an urinal than a sitting toilet - less water consum, less pee on the toilet seat, less queues. Oh, I actually paid money to enter the gents toilet at the train station in Gothenburg. That was quite a surprise, I paid, entered through a door and came to a big room, and ... there was like six sitting toilets there and a big queue. I looked a bit around for the urinals, there were none.
If I read the sign correctly, one is also not supposed to puke in the toilet. I've heard about one toilet in a drinking place that actually had a special station for that purpose. I do believe it's better that people puke in the toilet than other places ...
Toilet paper at other places than in the toilet is also a problem. In quite some countries, including Greece, parts of Russia and most of Asia, one should not throw toilet paper in the toilet as the systems aren't designed for handling paper. This is a problem that goes both ways, as I believe most Norwegians abroad would typically put the toilet paper in the toilet even in countries where one isn't supposed to do that. For people that aren't travelling a lot, it's very weird to do things the other way around - people that are used to throwing paper in the bin will consider it a taboo throwing it in the toilet, people that have thrown used toilet paper in the toilet all their life will want to get rid of it and will consider it disgusting (and a taboo) to throw it into a garbage bin rather than in the toilet. I've heard stories about Norwegian cleaning staff that have been emptying bins in the toilet, bins that they assumed contained only paper used for drying hands, and then screaming in horror as they found used brown toilet paper in the bin. How could people do something as disgusting as that?
In the newspaper article, there were no bin in the toilet, so they had problems with used toilet paper ending up on the floor. What can I say ... have you ever noticed there are ashtrays in the airplane toilets? I used to assume that was an artifact from those times when one could smoke in the plane, but no ... every newly produced airplane has it, and it's mandatory to put put it there, right under with the sign telling that it's strictly forbidden to light up a cigarette in the toilet. Well, in addition to the sign urging people to throw the paper into the toilet, I'd recommend to have a bin with a plastic liner ... just in case!
The running water story
So, according to the referenced article it's a new trend that ladies leave the water running to mask out the noise from peeing. So Alice comes to an empty toilet room with one or more sinks for handwashing, and several toilet boots (and no handwash fascilities inside the boots). She turns on the water tap, goes doing her stuff, and while she's there Betty enters into another boot. Alice does not turn off the tap as a courtesy of Betty, Betty does not turn off the tap as she did not open it in the first place and consider it outside her responsibility. For one thing this is a horrible waste of water (even if it's generally a plentiful resource in Norway), for the other thing sometimes there are capacity constraints on the outlet so the sink eventually overflows.
From commons.wikimedia - taken by 247 home rescue
I must admit, I'm also very shy when it comes to the toilet stuff. I just wrote that I believe it's better to use the urinals than the sitting toilet - and yet, if there are other persons in the toilet, most likely I will be heading for the sitting toilets, because then I can close the door behind me. If I try standing by the urinal, chances are that nothing will come out, it's just impossible for me to do my things while I'm feeling other people are looking at (or may be looking at). The fear of someone noticing that I'm just standing by the urinal without peeing is actually much stronger than the fear that someone should be staring while I'm peeing. It's sometimes the same with sounds. Even as a child, I usually aimed not for the water in the toilet, but the bowl, some few cm above the water line, to produce less noise. Sounds are a problem both when doing number one and number two. It's a two-way problem, I do not enjoy listening to those noises, particularly not "number two-sounds". There is a simple solution to this as well - music in the toilet!
Another thing, I think every toilet and bathroom should have an outlet on the floor. We also did have an incident involving a leaking toilet cistern in our office at the sixth floor ... "luckily" the water found an easy way through the electricity cabinet in the neighbour room and directly down to the first floor, where it ended up in a supermarket. The damages were not that bad - though the super market had to keep closed for some hours during the cleanup. Just like that ashtray in the airplane, such an outlet is not supposed to be used, but in such cases it can really save the day.
Conclusions
- Any place serving such a large number of Asians that it's needed to put up posters explaining how to use a sitting toilet, ought to consider also installing a squatting toilet. (Similarly, any place serving a large amount of westerners ought to consider installing a sitting toilet - many westerners simply can't squat properly).
- Gents toilets should be with urinals, preferably arranged in such a way that one can do business without other people staring at it.
- There should be a litter bin by the toilet, with a plastic liner - even if it may be accompanied with instructions telling people to throw the toilet paper in the garbage
- It's a good idea to have music in toilets
- Every toilet and bathroom ough to have an outlet in the floor.