What's a skill that's taken for granted where you live, but is often missing in people moving there from abroad?

https://kyu.de/post/1055442

What's a skill that's taken for granted where you live, but is often missing in people moving there from abroad? - kyu

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.

In Ontario, it’s often swimming.

Lots of lakes here, children need to be taught to swim

Dutchmen here.

Most, if not all, children learn to swim when they reach age five. Lots of water here, it’s pretty much a basic life/survival skill.

That leads to a follow up question to people from different areas: Is swimming a regular part of school sports?

I grew up in Germany with pretty much no lakes, and we had blocks of sports classes in the swimming pool from first grade - didn’t make me a great swimmer, but I can go swim a bit in a lake without having to worry.

Now we’re in Finland (lots of lakes here), and also swimming classes take place from first grade.

Not where I am. It never came up, despite water technically being everywhere. People just assume I guess. Still not something I can do.