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

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by aard@kyu.de to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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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.

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[–] ominouslemon@lemm.ee 125 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (50 children)

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

[–] drekly@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (12 children)

In the UK I was given the option of German or French, but I wasn't taught very well, and could barely speak a few basic sentences after 5 years of schooling. If this is a common experience, as I believe it is, it results in a populace who speaks english only. (Obviously an issue exacerbated by the commonality of English on the internet and popular media)

It blows my mind how inefficient my school must have been. Right now, I can't imagine learning something for 5 years and retaining nothing.

[–] RoquetteQueen 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Same with French here in Canada. I took French for six years and I still don't speak it at all, and I actually did really well in my French classes.

[–] lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago

I spent more time conjugating verbs than actually speaking it.

[–] Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yep. French Immersion was the way to go if you started in elementary school or had above average academic skills for late immersion. I'm still disappointed I had to stop when I moved and getting to the school with the program just wasn't feasible (had done two years of immersion prior). By the time I moved again it was Grade 10 and the presumed fluency was so high I would have struggled very badly.

Now the best option is dating a French girl, but my wife has reservations.

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