🗓️ Idiom: Walk a Mile in Someone’s Shoes (v)
💬 Meaning
- To try to understand another person’s experience or point of view.
- To see things from someone else’s perspective, especially when they are different from you.
🧠 Example Sentences
- Before judging others, try to walk a mile in their shoes.
- Cross-cultural training helps us walk a mile in our clients’ shoes.
- The manager encouraged the team to walk a mile in the customer’s shoes when solving complaints.
🏛️ Origin
This idiom comes from a Native American proverb that said, “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins.” It uses the image of wearing another person’s shoes to understand their life. The phrase became common in English in the 20th century, especially in discussions about empathy and communication.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
Before making decisions about the new staff, the team leader tried to __________.
Answer
walk a mile in their shoes
2. Choose the correct meaning of “walk a mile in someone’s shoes”:
A) To borrow someone’s shoes
B) To take a long walk with someone
C) To understand someone else’s experience
Answer
C) To understand someone else’s experience
3. Rewrite the sentence using the idiom:
“She made an effort to understand how her international coworkers were feeling.” → Change the sentence using: walk a mile in someone’s shoes
Answer
She tried to walk a mile in her international coworkers’ shoes.