Shoes and Arab culture: "The shoes are considered the filthiest part of the body, and to put that on a person's head, which is considered the highest and most noble part, is enormously humiliating." (thanks Huw who provided me with the transcript and who said to me: "I'm often a little unsure when you're being sarcastic and when you're being straight". I once had a student who said the same to me 2 weeks after the beginning of the class. He later dropped the course).