I was thinking about that when I was dropping my 6 year old off at some hobbies earlier - it’s pretty much expected to have learned how to ride a bicycle before starting school, and it massively expands the area you can go to by yourself. When she went to school by bicycle she can easily make a detour via a shop to spend some pocket money before coming home, while by foot that’d be rather time consuming.
Quite a lot of friends from outside of Europe either can’t ride a bicycle, or were learning it as adult after moving here, though.
edit: the high number of replies mentioning “swimming” made me realize that I had that filed as a basic skill pretty much everybody has - probably due to swimming lessons being a mandatory part of school education here.
Knowing how to swim. Basic life skill in a water-rich country, but many expats can’t.
Speaking more than one language. Being from Switzerland, we’re required to study 2 languages (+ our native one) at school. So it’s not infrequent to encounter swiss people who speak 4+ languages
In Germany it’s also mandatory - but learning the language at school unfortunately doesn’t necessarily mean you can speak it. LucasArts adventures contributed more to my language skills than my first English teacher. I’m always shocked about the lack of English skills in a lot of Germans when I’m back visiting. Rather surprisingly one of my uncles born in the 30s spoke pretty good English, though.
We’re now living in Finland - me German, wife Russian, we each speak to the kids in our native language, between each other English. So they’re growing up with 4 languages.
It’s quite interesting to watch them grow up in that situation. When learning about a new historical figure my daughter always asks which languages they spoke - and few weeks ago she was surprised someone only spoke two languages. So I explained that some people only speak one language - she gave me a very weird look, and it took a while to convince her that I’m not just making a bad joke.
That’s a point current generation children are actively working on by following English-speaking streamers, communicating in predominantly English Discords, etc. The worst: my kid chose to prefer American English. Where did I go wrong?
American english is the standard dialect for online content. And without exposure other dialects can be really hard to understand.
Only speaking one language fluently makes me feel like garbage regularly, none of my schooling really stuck and I can never commit to language or feel enough confidence to use anything I do learn.
we’re required to study 2 languages (+ our native one) at school
This is crazy to me. I studied French at school for years and got to a decent enough level, but then when I tried to take Spanish later on I couldn’t deal with it. Maybe if they’d been concurrent it would’ve been a different story but I just couldn’t keep the languages separate in my brain. Then years later when I moved to a different country the French pretty much left my head as a new language replaced it.
I guess I’ve only got one “foreign language center” in my head and only one language can occupy it at any time.
you need to keep using it. Watch a show or read a book in that language every once in a while. It’ll do wonders to keep the brain on it.
In Sweden kids learn English from second grade and a third language from fifth grade.
What really annoys me is how many programmers seem to expect us to only be able to understand one language. I much rather have the program made in English than to read a bad Swedish translation.
We learned swimming in primary school in Germany, no opting out.
But having lived in several African countries and now in China, it’s surprising how many people not only can’t swim, but are deathly afraid of water.
If the country is big enough (aka Canada) these differences can be between provinces. People from Ontario can’t ride bulls, but every kid in Alberta can. Newfoundlanders can fish but Manitobans are afraid of water. In British Columbia you are taught how to roll marijuana cigarette in high school but in Nova Scotia scotch is the bag lunch drink of choice.
Winter driving and shoulder season driving. Snow, ice, black ice, freezing rain, slush, hydroplaning, driveway clearing, walkway maintenance, windshield scraping, and keeping an emergency kit for breakdowns. Stuff like that.
Swimming. Here, kids have to take mandatory swimming courses at school. I have quite a few eastern european friends, and they all tell me, that swimming is something that people learn if they want to and if they can afford it, but it’s not learly an universal skill in their countries.
Most people who drown here are actually immigrants, who see everyone swimming and think that it can’t be that hard…
Or in my case they just assume. Which is why I had brush-ins with the experience in the last sentence.
Sounds like you got a story to tell.
Not really stories, just not-good experiences. Had a couple/few moments where someone disagreed with the whole hard thing. I was going along a ledge near water recently and people assumed I had the same floatation magic as everyone else when I was thrust in and even after they (except for someone’s dog) saw what amounted to thrashing. So it works both ways.
That sucks pretty hard.
If you want to, they do offer swimming courses also for adults, at least over here.
It might be worth the investment.
Pooping in the toilet.
When I went to university with a lot of international students, there would often be poop on the seats.
My understanding is Asian toilets are different and a good few students from there were standing on the seat and aiming at the bowl from height, with mixed success.
Wait, that’s how that happens? I always found it weird with those signs to not poop while standing up.
Lol no, you poop squatting on the toilet, without any part of your body touching the toilet. Toilets in India (and probably rest of Asia) are at ground level, with two porcelain blocks on either side to keep your feet on (the blocks are set into the ground and have a rough top; neither you nor they will slip). Most hotels will also have western toilets.
Also using toilet paper is considered unspeakably gross. You are supposed to use water and/or your left hand (right hand if you are left-handed), and to then wash your hands with soap. Because of this, you should touch food only with your dominant hand; using the other, however clean it actually is, is seen as uncivilised.
How the hell is it gross though to use toilet paper when your hand would be even dirtier with poo if you use it plainly?? That’s a recipe for illness…
and to then wash your hands with soap.
The grossness is because it might not clean your backside as thoroughly as water.
In Australia it’s not just knowing how to swim but where to swim and when. A lot of tourists drown in the ocean here because they don’t know how to read the waves / don’t have an understanding of the local area.
Never swam in an ocean, could you elaborate?
He must be referring to riptides. In some spots the water hits the beach as waves. In others nearby, the water gets pulled back into the ocean, and those are the spots you need to avoid.
Then depending on the ebb and flow of the twice-daily tides, the riptides are stronger or weaker.There are ways to see where the riptides are, yet many people from my own coastal town are oblivious to these dangers. Inland/landlocked tourists are even more oblivious and vulnerable.
I always think it’s weird when I run into people that can’t whistle or make a horn sound blowing a blade of grass. I’m not even talking like those ear-piercing 2-fingers-in-mouth whistles, just regular Andy Griffith style.
Definitely understand there are many whistling taboos(as there should be, Russia) and some bored rural-ness that factor in.
