What's a skill that's taken for granted where you live, but is often missing in people moving there from abroad?
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.
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.
Or driving in general. As an American who didn't get a driver's license until I was 21 (gasp! so old) due to some reasons, I can attest that many, many people here simply can't comprehend the idea of someone over 17 or so not having one. I got turned away from a hotel once because they didn't know how to use a passport as an ID.
The only other people I've met with this problem were immigrants. And we were always able to bond over lamentations of how difficult it is to solve this problem... the entire system to get a license here is built around the assumption that everyone does it in high school, so every step of the way is some roadblock like "simply drive to your driving test appointment"...
I'm now 41, never made a license - there wasn't really much of a need until now. I can get anywhere I want with a combination of bicycle and public transport.
North America was built by the train, it was later destroyed for the car.
Currently in Finland - single family home in a town with 46k people. Originally from a 2k village in Germany.
We have two daycares, a school and a grocery store 1km from home - here that kind of stuff is integrated in the neighbourhoods where people live. Many elementary schools, some just grades 1 and 2 - by grade 3 they can already easily travel the longer distance to another school by themselves.
You’d be surprised how for you can stretch ANY transit infrastructure. I despise the resignation that North America was “built for cars” you’ll find people-centric places all over the country, both in cities and rural areas too. The biggest issue is that a lot of rural areas lack transit service, but fixing that would be relatively inexpensive. Unfortunate anywhere without transit is inaccessible to disabled people such as myself who are incapable of operating their own vehicle, so this is something we need to work on.
Most places were built for people, not cars. But many weee, and even more were demolished for them. But saying that North American cities were designed for cars ignores much of the history of North American urban development.
Either way, if a place isn’t transit accessible, it might as well not exist. Though I must stress that it is NOT difficult to make something transit accessible.
Which is also better for the environment and a perfectly fine way to live. I think more people should be like that
I moved to the USA and then Canada as an adult. I had never needed to learn to drive in my home country because there were decent buses and trains. But you really can't function easily in North America without driving a car, so I had to learn and start polluting like everyone else. It's not a good setup.
This right here is a big one. I live in a college town in Minnesota and the students from out of state are absolute mennaces on the road in winter. My dad used to plow snow for one of the local universities. He had multiple students drive directly head on into his plow because they never cleared off any of their windshield before they started driving down the road. Luckily the snow plow tends to handily win in those situations and the plow trucks all had dash cams for exactly that reason.
You also get the people who think they're invincible in the snow because they're driving a 4 wheel drive truck. Newsflash, 4 wheel drive doesn't mean you stop any better and it doesn't do much when you're on glare ice.
Similarly people who haven't dealt with snow have no idea what to do when they do start sliding. So many people will just hit the brakes when they start to slide, which anyone who is familiar with winter driving should know that is the exact thing you never want to do.
Snow tires are another big one. I drive a tiny crappy rear wheel drive pickup but as long as I have a good set of snow tires on it and a few sand bags in the bed of the truck, then it still out performs any other vehicle with all weather tires in the snow.
I live in a ski town that caters to the Los Angeles crowd, and I feel you on all that. 4 wheel drive does not mean 4 wheel stop lol. We are lucky in that we don't get that permafrost y'all get up north, usually the roads dry out a few days after a snow storm so snow tires aren't mandatory up here. But the number of overconfident goofballs in the winter is way too high.
The big one I can think of are snow rated tires, most people have plain old radials that don't do squat in snow. And then you have people that don't know which axle is their drive axle and that's always fun to watch. Thankfully I have a two door wrangler with all terrains that is a breeze to drive in snow, very rarely do I have to chain up.
What's shoulder season driving?
So it will snow at night but warm up during the day so you're dealing with icy conditions that have a layer of melt water on them. Or freezing rain that flash freezes at dusk to black ice. And so on.
And for people who don’t know, black ice isn’t actually black (unless is filthy with dirt). It’s ice clear enough that the black asphalt underneath shows through very clearly. This make it so you’re on ice and don’t know it because it just looks like regular road.
Fairly certain the shoulder here is referring to the season. The in-between fall and winter and winter to spring.
Was a bit of a learning curve for me, having moved from subtropical Florida to Colorado the land of eternal winter. I bought a Subaru.
I had an Uber driver in Florida last time I was there (business) and when he found out I was from Canada he told me he went to Boulder in the winter for a vacation and thought it would be cool to rent a car and drive up a mountain. Yeah, he was pretty freaked out by that driving experience. :)
Good call on the Subaru. My wife had a couple and they were great in the snow. First car we ever had with heated seats, too!
When I first moved here I thought to myself,”Damn there are a lot of Subarus here.”. The reason became abundantly clear during my first winter here lol.
I used to (sometimes skipping class) drive in the mountains almost every day when I was living in Boulder attending CU. I loved it and miss it dearly.
I've never been there but I lived in Banff, Alberta for a while when I was 19 (which was a while ago). I was cooking at a hotel there and living in residence. Sometimes I thought I'd stay there forever but I love the ocean, too. Jokes on me, I live in a city hours from the mountains and a day from the ocean now. :)
Something about a mountain town after a snow storm... Pretty cool.
Maybe I'm old but I love John Denver's Rocky Mountain High. Takes me back.
A few years ago I was stuck in a terrible traffic jam, five hours through ice and snow for a drive that should've been 50 minutes.
A woman froze in her car in that jam, and since then I've made sure to always have a warm sleeping bag in the car.
Also, heated side mirrors are so nice
One variant of this I encounter is driving in the rain. I moved to SoCal from NY, and everyone here freaks out when it so much as drizzles, and there is always insane traffic due to accidents upon any precipitation...
Something like two of the mates I grew up with can drive at all.
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.
Also Germany.
I learned english in school but only enough to be able to read it.
Once I started reading user submitted short stories (lile fan fics but different) my grammar really improved.
Nowadays the content I consume is basically 90% english based.
Just my capitalization and grammar structure sucks. Also my vocal skills as I have no one to talk to.
But: I really have to thank my last Grundschul and Realschul english teachers. Without those two I may have never got into english that well.
For me it was mainly watching films and tv shows in english. I've always preferred the original audio on anything, really. So it motivated me a good bit to become more fluent.
The only german dub I didn't hate was Breaking Bads', and even then I wasn't overly fond of it.
Can't get over english cartoons dubs.
Ben10, Avatar ATLA and spongebob sound so much worse in english compared to german to my ears. Could not enjoy it.
Live action movies are usually equal or only slightly worse regarding original vs dubbed german.
Now that I think about it, there is one that's infinitely better in German, and that's The Emperors' new Groove
Legendary
So let me specify, I prefer the original if it's live action
Oh yeah. Kuzcos Königsklasse is awesome.
Especially the villains.
Never watched the series, but it seems good
FTFY. Not a dig, just correcting your already very good English.
It's got in British English.
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?
I guess you didnt realize until it was too late.
Yeah, I think I've lost him (to the Colonies).
American english is the standard dialect for online content. And without exposure other dialects can be really hard to understand.
Not if you're exclusively consuming Black Adder and old Top Gear videos online.^^
Of course I know people that only speak one language.
It’s me.
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.
I don't know that it's necessarily that it's "inefficient". Moreso that it's difficult for a language to actually stick and be useful if you're not immersing yourself in that language. You can go to class all you want, but if you're not trying to actively immerse yourself in it beyond class, you're not going to learn the language no matter how good the teacher is.
It's relatively "easy" to immerse yourself in English language content because English has sort of become the "lingua Franca" of the modern world. Something like Polish, for example, isn't.
I'm still not multilingual, but this concept made a lot more sense to me as to why I never retained my Spanish classes when I started learning programming. There's a huge difference between say, reading a book / watching guides / reading tutorials on a programming language (which by itself generally won't get you anywhere) vs actually following along, trying to make your own projects, etc.
How would a child do that, if no one in their community speaks the target language, outside of the ~90 minute class?
Well that's exactly my point. It's pretty "easy" to do it with English because there is so much English media to consume out there. A lot of shows and movies they want to watch are probably already in English. Their parents might speak English for work, etc. Less so with many other languages.
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.
I spent more time conjugating verbs than actually speaking it.
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.
It doesn't help that outside of school, you will never use that language. Even if you go abroad, everyone either wants to practice their English or thinks your French/German is so poor that they'd prefer to just speak English.
I took Spanish for three years here in the States. Most of the Spanish I know now I learned after high school. This seems to be a pretty common problem in nations with English as the official language...
Common for everybody learning a language in an educational institution without RL practice. Immersion, of course, is the best way to learn a language, - gives good results even if you didn't know it at all before being, eh, immersed.
Thanks to events earlier last century pretty much everybody at least in Europe/Russia can speak a few basic sentences, and is often more than willing to demonstrate: "Haende hoch!" (hands up), "Nicht schiessen!" (don't shoot) and a few others.
Oddly it's actually very common (and required in some areas) in the US to study more than one language also. What is extremely uncommon are opportunities to use a second language, so very few people actually ever become fluent. It's a shame really.
Exactly. Unless things have changed dramatically, one or two years of a foreign language is a requirement in high school, and there are more opportunities in lower K-12 these days from what I hear. However, you're right that this is not especially helpful without some immersion, and the practice of trading your kids to a foreign family for a year is far less common. Then, after K-12, opportunities to practice greatly diminish.
The German mother of a good friend moved to the US West coast when she was a young adult, married, and had my friend. She never lost her German accent. When I was in my early 20s, I had the opportunity to live and work in Germany for a couple of years, and when I came back, I was fairly fluent - enough to pass as a native from a "different region." I visited my friend when I returned, and tried to have a conversation with her mother in German; she sadly informed me that she had forgotten most of her German, and could no longer converse... there are few opportunities to speak in German on the West coast, and even native language skills attrophy if unused.
In a related annecdote, when I first returned to the states, I'd sometime fail to remember the English words for the odd thing, like "trash can." All I could remember was the German word for it.
All thay has gone away. Years later, I can barely hold basic conversations in German. Maybe some people have an ability to retain language skills without practice, but I believe it's far more common to lose fluency you once had.
That's a good anecdote.
For my part I took Spanish from 2nd or 3rd grade all through college. I basically knew enough to be dangerous and it was occasionally useful in online chat where my broken Spanish was marginally better than some people's non-existent English. But honestly the biggest strength was that I knew enough to be able to tell when Google translate did a bad job conveying my meaning.
Nowadays I'm several years removed from the last opportunity to use it at all and I hardly remember anything. It's definitely a "use it or lose it" thing.
Reading always helped me to, at least keep the language alive in my head. So reading and understanding were never a problem.
But conversation? That degrades quickly to the point where people ask you from what country you are visiting...
Are you a transplant?
It also has to do with the wide diversity of languages spoken. The elementary school where my kids go put out a statement during the pandemic that there are 32 different languages spoken by kids at home. They had gotten many requests for school communications in more than just English and Spanish, and had to explain why that wasn't feasible.
So there are a ton of bilingual kids in their school, but my kids could learn the 4 additional languages spoken by the kids in their classroom, and the following year they would need to learn 4 entirely new languages. They learned to count to ten in several languages, but like you said, they will never have the opportunity to become fluent if they don't go somewhere less heterogenous.
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.
Found the Brit/American/Australian? (Delete as appropriate)
I believe firmly that anyone can do it. You just need to find community and a good reason to keep going.
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.
As in non swedish programmers try to translate into Sweedish for you?
Yes exactly. Google is a big culprit of this, for instance translating descriptions of apps in Google play or giving me results on Google search in Swedish when I specifically wrote it in English. If I had wanted results in Swedish I would have written it in Swedish. Adding quotation marks doesn't even help. I miss the time when you actually got what you searched for and not what Google believes that you search for... YouTube has an issue in the app when looking at playlist. Since the word "visningar" is so much longer than "views" the rest of the line is cut off. So you for instance can't see if the video was posted 1 month ago or 1 year. This is more a failure of gui due to translation than the translation it self though.
On the subject of shitty translations: a budget webpage translated "disabled", as in "this option is turned off", as "funktionshindrad" which means a person with a disability. I bug reported it and the initial response was:
Two months later they wrote that it would be forwarded to their product team for "whenever there's an update in our system". That was 10 months ago and it still isn't fixed.
Presumably what they meant, yes. Sometimes YouTube translates video titles for example. Of course, the video is still in the original language, so it's completely useless, except for videos without speech.
Every program should have a setting to define in which language you want to interact with it.
YouTube supports multiple audio tracks these days and sometimes it decides that I should listen to a dubbed version of a video. Somehow all media players are very limited when it comes to settings for language preferences.
Which is ridiculous and funny, because our (at least 15 year old) DVD system can swap between audio tracks flawlessly!
I can speak a few languages, but only the one I speak right now is useful.
Growing up in Australia I was required to learn a second language in years 7 and 8. All I can remember is how to say "and now cumshot" thanks to my friend and I finding his dad's porn collection.
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.
Keeping them separate is a struggle! Especially if they come from the same ancient language. I have troubles separating like German and English, and also Italian and French. Especially when I try to speak German, I end up throwing in lots of English words and structures
Knowing how to swim. Basic life skill in a water-rich country, but many expats can't.
Surprisingly, many Irish don't know how to swim, even though it's an island.
It's fecking cold!
Can confirm. Went swimming in Ireland in the summer once, my friend who lived there gave me a wetsuit to wear. Some other locals wore them, others didnt.
I stayed dry and fully clothed while building a sandcastle and watched the locals go swimming in wetsuits. Can't remember where, somewhere on the coast of Claire or Galway.
I was staying in Doolan, so it must have been Bishops quater beach. It was in 2004, so I could be wrong.
It's not that cold. It's the Gulf Stream, which flows south-north from a tropical origin so it's warmer than the water on the US west coast, for example, which flows north-south from the Bering Sea on the Alaska Current.
The Gulf Stream is also why northwestern Europe is as temperate as it is while being at the same latitudes as southeastern Alaska and northern British Columbia which have heavily glaciated coastlines.
If the Norwegian fjotds were in Alaska, for example, they would be the mouths of giant glaciers, but they aren't, again because of the warming influence of the Gulf Stream.
Not sure if that makes sense, but anyway.
There are plenty of beaches and people often travel to thembfor the sake of enjoying the beach. The main issue is that for 11-12 months of the year, the water is fucking freezing. If people learn to swim, it's often in heated swimming pools as kids.
I can relate to this.
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.
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.
In Ontario, it’s often swimming.
Lots of lakes here, children need to be taught to swim
Dutchy 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.
It’s generally not taught by default in US schools, but some schools offer it as an elective and/or as a competitive sport. Maintaining a swimming pool is an expense that many schools, especially in poorer districts, cannot afford. Outside of schools, there are sometimes community swim classes at places like the YMCA, but those require the parents to be actively involved (like with many extracurricular activities) and usually are an additional expense.
Physical education is usually a mandatory part of US schools through high school (where students graduate at around age 18), and schools often offer students a selection of sports for PE - I did fencing one year and wrestling, gymnastics, and archery other years - but swimming requires more infrastructure than a basketball court and some padded mats.
German here: the solution for most of the schools I went to and heard of (elementary) was to get a bus to drive to the next public swimming pool and they'd let us use it for a few hours. The government is funding that. And that solution worked for most of them, although I only managed to get do my swim test after swimming classes in school because I was anxious about it.
NL here. It's similar here. I remember the bus, our school would hire a coach to take group 3 (think six-year-olds) to swimming at the pool on the other side of town. And until you had at least one diploma, you were required to come along. By group five, everyone had at least a basic swimming diploma.
When I was a kid in Florida in elementary school, that's what most elementary schools did, mine was next door to a swimming pool so we just walked. At the time I think it actually was mandated by the state - swimming pools in backyards are extremely common there and it was an upsettingly common occurrence for kids to drown in them, so they took a week to make sure we all knew how to tread water. I don't know if Florida kids still learn how to tread water or if swimming lessons are now woke somehow.
In Germany the same - but swimming classes are mandated by law from grade 3 onwards, though we started going from grade 1 back then.
American here. The nearest swimming pool to my hometown was in Canada. So no.
Edit: I don't think this is normal
Also american here and I learned to swim before I started preschool. But I also live in the land of 10,000 lakes so it's basically a requirement here. So this is another one of those things that is going to depend on which state you're in.
Oh yeah, I make no claim that any of my experiences are anywhere near universal. Basically no part of the American experience is.
How big distances / population are we talking here?
I was growing up in a small village, so in elementary school we went by bus to a nearby village with 7000 inhabitants and a swimming pool.
Now we're living in a town with a population of 46000 with its own swimming pool.
Yeah, a small village. It would have been a half-hour bus ride to the town of ~5000, but they couldn't compel all students to get a passport, and the nearest pool in the US would have been about an hour and a half away, so it was never part of the curriculum. Some kids had their parents drive them to Canada after school for private (expensive?) swimming lessons, but it wasn't standard.
Not where I am. It never came up, despite water technically being everywhere. People just assume I guess. Still not something I can do.
I had swimming as a subject from 7 years old in school here in NL.
It used to be part of the school curriculum but it was often after most children had at least learned the basics in swimming classes.
There’s dedicated swimming schools, run by swimming pools and overseen by the government.
Same for Swiss. It's not normal that you can't swim here.
Italy.
Cooking, every foreign person I know eats 20x more takeout and fast food than I do.
In the dry SW US the answer is drink water when it’s 100F or worse 115F+. Having a half liter of water from the hotel for the half day mountain hike, or pounding a half gallon of ice water and throwing up five minutes later. Your body doesn’t tell you when you should drink, it tells you when you are already behind on drinking.
This is no joke. Even experienced hikers won't bring enough water for their trek and will end up either being emergency heli-evac'd out or just plain die.
I just carry a half gallon thermal jug with me all the time. Hiking or not. If my mouth feels the slightest bit dry, I need to drink more water. I tend to piss clear, or very pale yellow cause of this, but the upshot is that I was fine wandering around Anzo Borrego national park, and two of my friends (who thought that my idea of covering myself head to toe in jeans, a trench coat, and a trilby was a bad idea,) damn near got heatstroke. I basically threw my water at them when I noticed they weren't sweating anymore.
This is a real killer. People have no idea and tend to overestimate the risk from wildlife and underestimate the risk from weather conditions and exposure. Far more people are killed by hypothermia caused by extreme heat or cold than anything else in North American wilderness areas.
I've been part of my local SAR community here in Oregon for decades now and while we don't have to worry so much about the heat, what gets people here is the cold.
If you are somehow lost or stuck in the high Cascades at night without adequate clothing or a heat source, you are in big trouble, especially if it rains or snows, both of which can and will happen even in the middle of summer.
River crossings are also a big danger since the current is always much stronger than it looks and the water is near freezing and if you fall in and don't have dry clothes and it starts to rain and blow, you are fucked.
Dealing with winter. I live in the rural upper Midwest, where winter can hit -20 with whiteout blizzards, week-long power outages, and car-burying snowdrifts. I've seen too many people move here from warmer places and think "I guess I'll buy a warmer coat and a snow shovel", rather than "I should have a backup generator, a backup heat source, a few barrels of spare fuel, a month's worth of stockpiled food, and at least two different pieces of heavy snow-moving machinery tested to be in good working order".
Here in Switzerland the question you ask is usually, "do you ski or do you snowboard"? It's just assumed that you can do at least one.
Southern Georgia, USA.
This is more of a regional rationalization about occasional weather hazards. Here in coastal Georgia, we get snow from time to time, about a half an inch to two inches once every three to five years. There's a lot of people from colder climates that move here for work or retirement; they hear "a possible light dusting of snow" on the news or from a weather app and think that means nothing. Where they're from it's just normal, happens every year and there's often more. They'll even laugh at us for shutting down the schools and staying home from work for freezing rain. Here's the thing: no one here knows how to drive in snow and will likely only see black ice a dozen times in their lifetime. Further, we have no salt/sand trucks, we have no plows, we have zero civic infrastructure to meant to deal with our very occasional ice storm or light snow. It happens so infrequently that there's no way to justify spending taxpayers' money to prepare in that way for those kinds of situations. So we shut down the schools and most businesses for a day or so and everyone mostly stays home. We're not necessarily unprepared for winter weather, we just prepare in a different way that makes sense for the situation.
Just misunderstanding social cues. Where I live (Spain), there's a script you're supposed to follow for certain things and newcomers, understandably, don't understand the script. One famous example is buying new clothes. They all look great on. The idea here is that the poor person spent their hard-earned money on the new clothes. Damned right they look great on! Another would be birthdays celebrated in public venues. Perhaps someone you know is celebrating their birthday in a public venue and you had no idea they were celebrating their birthday on that day. You walk up to them and wish them a happy birthday, BUT you were not invited to this celebration. Since you weren't invited you did not come prepared with a present for the birthday person. The safe thing to do is to ignore, socialize with the people you came with, and make like that person isn't even there until they approach YOU. When and if they approach you, you make pretend you're all distracted and you have to be like, "Ahhh! I didn't see you! What's up?" The reason: that person is buying all the invitees the drinks and food. In exchange, the invitees have brought presents. It's a very nuanced and weird situation all of us have encountered. We err on the fear of not having brought a present because we had no idea because we were not invited.
The birthday thing fascinates me because it's the exact opposite of how you would handle it in the US. Here you would wish them a happy birthday and then move on since you weren't invited.
In the USA, the birthday thing is the best thing about the USA. It's all about being selfless (I'm American btw, been living in Spain for so long I'm a citizen) and it's actually something that creates conflict in interpersonal relationships between natives of Spain and the friends they make that are not from here. It is a huge drama that somebody needs to make a documentary film about now. This birthday thing has no age. It could be a 20th birthday or a 100th birthday. You ain't invited, you didn't know, you didn't bring the presents, you just keep to yourself in the public venue. It's harsh. It's harsh because you were excluded and you don't care, because you're American, you just want to be nice and wish them a happy birthday. Spanish people are all nope on that shit. It's all about the presents and who bought you the drinks and food.
are you saying its transactional then? like a social contract of "it's my birthday, so I'm paying for my guests food and drink." You, my guest, have accepted that contract by bringing a gift?
This flies in the face of birthdays I'm used to. There's no expectation that If I invite someone to my birthday that a) they need to give me a gift (I would never expect that) or b) I'm paying for their food and drink. I guess because that social contract isn't in place, the idea that someone can come over and say happy birthday isn't a big deal. It's just a gathering that happens to be on my birthday.
It's not really transactional. It's just a situation where you got left out of the birthday and happened to go out to the same place where the birthday is being celebrated. However, it's interesting to note that there is no such thing as a surprise birthday party. The birthday boy or girl is the one that throws the party because of the reciprocity aspect. You wouldn't be caught dead attending a birthday without a present for the person whose birthday it is. You also wouldn't be caught dead letting people bring you birthday presents AND buying you dinner. It's more like "tit for tat" than "transactional."
That's interesting. Would you please further explain the clothes shopping thing? Is it that it is rude for a shopkeeper or, say, the people you may be shopping with to say anything except "That looks great on you"?
It's more like after they bought the new clothes. Like, your friend bought new clothes and wants to show you what they bought. It could be a friend, a brother, a sister, a cousin, an aunt, anybody. While shopping for clothes, before they buy the clothes, is the right time to criticize. It's perfectly acceptable, and desired, to be out shopping and trying on clothes before buying them, to say whatever you like. "That makes your ass look huge, don't buy that!" is desired, not discouraged. Never trust the salesperson. The employee of the store is going to tell you it all looks good so you buy it, even if it looks bad. They even try to sell you more crap, saying things go together when they don't. I'm talking about after they bought the clothes and they're showing you what they bought because you're their friend or relative or whatever.
Is it not true in the US too? I wouldn't tell someone who wasn't a very close friend that their new outfit looked bad after they'd already bought it. That just sounds like a jerk move even here.
Yeah, it's very similar, but at home in the US I can think of a few situations where it might be ok to say it looks bad from my personal life.
Got it. That makes way more sense. Thanks for taking the time to explain it.
huh, so the implication is that saying it looks good means that you're passing judgment on the outfit when it would be incorporate? to my American sensibilities when i pay a compliment it's just to be encouraging. there's no thought in my head that i might say something negative about it. sometimes it's like seeing a kitten and going "aww" I just try to let the kind impulse thoughts out intentionally. especially when complimenting my fellow men's appearance. we don't get that enough otherwise.
I really think it would be a great movie plot. Could even be a slasher film.
How to walk on ice is a big one. How to cross a street is another one here in Chicago (hint: look at the cars, not the lights).
For the ice one you mean taking a running start, sliding on it, and yelling weeeeeeeee... Right?
In Chicago it's the same thing.
I didn't, but that's another learned skill in this category, yes.
Cutlery.
Growing up everyone around me could use a knife and fork, whereas chopsticks were something most people couldn't use or only used badly. It never occurred to me that the opposite might be true until I shared a meal with some co-workers from mainland China and saw how clumsily they used our utensils.
It wasn't until that point that I appreciated the amount of dexterity and finesse that goes into using cutlery well, and that I took it for granted because it's something learned in childhood.
I guess here in Korea it's eating with chopsticks. In Sweden it was Swimming (especially for my Indian work mates). In Germany it was opening a beer bottle with anything you just happened to have in your hand at that time. In Poland I'm not sure, but probably making those elaborate sandwiches for parties.
Is the chopstick thing a dexterity issue? I'm so more inclined for chopsticks that, if eating alone, I'll use the other ends of my silverware like chopsticks (and I'm not a part of any chopstick culture).
I dont think it's so much an overall dexterity issue just a practice issue. Someone who doesn't regularly use chopsticks might have really high hand dexterity but they just haven't practiced that finger coordination. I.e. its easier to teach an athlete a new sport but a football players gonna have to practice to play hockey well.
The most common mistake I see with infrequent chopstick users is overgripping and a low grip. If you squeeze too hard it not only fatigues your hand but it actually makes them harder to control, same for choking up on them. If feels more secure but it actually gives you worse control. For any one wondering a high grip and only as tight as you'd hold a pen should make it easier to use chopsticks.
This goes for Denmark too.
Used to be the case in Switzerland, now most beer bottles have a twist-to-open cap that still looks like a normal beer bottle cap.
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.
If you aren't from south / southeast Asia you'll struggle with our traffic. Our roads are a stream of everything from cycles to busses with no dedicated lanes. If you want to cross the road and can't find a zebra-crossing you gang up with other pedestrians, hold up traffic by shouting and waving, and cross.
Understanding languages you don't know - every city will have people speaking three or more languages, so you need to understand what someone is saying even if you don't speak their language. Broken English with gesturing is a lingua franca.
Norway.
Cross country skiing. It's basically expected for every kid in school to be adaquate at cross country skiing. P. E. classes during winter could often consist of a ski trip, and a couple times per year the schools would arrange ski days with different acrivities on skis.
Rural Japan.
My kids (2 and 4) can use chopsticks already. Plenty of restaurants around here where you won't see a spoon, fork or knife. (However, it's certainly possible to ask the staff for western cutlery, and in the main cities they're more likely to be prepared for that question)
I'm Danish. Opening beer with a lighter or other things that aren't technically a bottle opener.
Everything's a bottle opener.
Opening bottles with your phone used to be a thing too. Most used Nokias from the 32/3310 era in Denmark have scratches at the bottom from people not doing I properly. I've seen some people open beer with iPhones, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Hold up - as a Canadian, this isn't a skill everyone learns in/around high school??
So how do you open one without a bottle opener?
A bottle of beer or a can of beer?
Bottles. It's similar in The Netherlands, it's a bit of a sport to open beer bottles with anything and everything, except dedicated bottle openers. Quite popular are Bic lighters, other beer bottles and the edges of tables.
Beer cans usually have pull tabs, they're just soda cans with a different brand on it.
I’m American and this is how it was when I was in college and went to parties. I rarely, if ever opened a beer bottle with a bottle opener. My bic lighter was the most common tool, but as you said, learning how to improvise with whatever was on hand was key. It was a proud day when I found that the trucks on my longboard had a sweet spot for cracking beers open
A bottle. As some Dutch person said in another comment, cigarette lighters, edges of tables and another bottle are popular options. Please don't use your teeth. I have a nice, rounded tooth that I used to use for opening beers when I was younger - I was lucky I didn't damage it more.
I grew up in rural Canada, but have been living in major metropolitan areas for most of my adult life. It still surprises me when I learn there are other adults that don't know how to chop wood, start a fire, work basic tools, etc.
Are chopping wood and starting a fire common activities in the metropolitan area where you live?
Going to the beach or camping, not unusual to start a bonfire.
Suburbia I'm canda just mean the great outdoors
I have no earthly idea how to do those things and I'm from Canada. It's also a gender thing if you're older like me.
From the city.
Kinda reverse, but when I moved to Singapore I was amazed by how few people knew how to cook their own food. But then again you can get a meal outside for 3-5 bucks so not really an issue
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.
The opposite happened to me in Japan. For the love of God I can't do an asian squat and there was only this old style squat toilet there. On top of that I really had to go because I had a bit of a diarrhea situation going on. I had no idea which one was the front and which was the back of the toilet. I figured if I try it I will just shit on my pants, so I had to completely remove them. Then I awkwardly lowered myself down no some kind of a weird squat, holding on to the walls of the stall for life, sweating like hell and bam, some of it went on the toilet.
I was relieved that I didn't shit myself but mortified how to clean up my mess. In the end I was able to clean it with some water and I was lucky that it was in the night (at a cheap hostel) and nobody came in why all of this was happening.
Hadn't thought about the trickiness the other way. Before I visit I will definitely spend some time googling how to poop in Japan.
Most bathrooms in Japan have either western style toilets or a choice of both, especially in urban areas. But better to not be caught unawares.
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.
Also this was the most common kind in the USSR.
"Western" seats are something more luxury, may or may not (EDIT: back then, not now, though I haven't been in really depressive parts) be present even in apartment bathrooms.
That's interesting. We copied a lot of stuff from the USSR; this might also have come from there.
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....
The grossness is because it might not clean your backside as thoroughly as water.
That's how it was explained to me by an Asian buddy who'd been back and forth. He and/or I could be wrong (or he could've been fucking with us...)
I have yet to figure out how a person who has leg problems or a back problem ever uses a toilet that you don’t actually sit on.
The flexibilility is maintained by practicing it from youth and doing it every day. Also, there are safety handles.
And related to this, using a bidet.
The swimming lesson thing was interesting. I also assumed everyone learned how to swim in school.
Going by yourself under at least 13 is nonexistent in the United States.
Pronouncing local place names. Lots of scattered areas here with place names that are spelled like other places names (for example we got a town called Egypt, a town called Binghamton, etc.) except that they're all pronounced differently. For example, we have a town called Leicester, named after the actual Leicester, and locals tend to raise an eyebrow when someone asks "how do you get to lester" (that would be the normal way to pronounce it)?
"Who's Lester? Is he the new guy in town?"
"What? No, the town."
"That's Leesester, not Lester."
"I'm sorry, wut?"
I of course just add to the confusion if I'm the one to break the news, as I have a Kiwi accent, which is atypical around here. So it becomes a "what do you know" kind of interaction.
There’s a place in Colorado called Buena Vista, yes, named in Spanish for good view. The locals all state that it’s Spanish. But they want it to be unique, so no, it’s not pronounced bwena. It’s fucking pronounced byunah. They literally know they’re pronouncing it wrong, they claim that it’s Spanish, and then they still say you’re pronouncing it wrong if you actually say it correctly.
There's a city in Kentucky called Versailles. Pronounced, you guessed it, vur-sails.
The capital of South Dakota is spelled "Pierre" and pronounced "Pier" like the thing ships pull up to.
And in California, the J, but not the LL, in "Vallejo" are pronounced as in Spanish. "Va-lay-ho".
haha you're joking. 🤦
I remember reading a Bill Bryson book, in which he mentioned a town (in Iowa, I think?) spelled Cairo, but pronounced cay-roh.
I briefly lived in a place with some very unintuitive place names that I had no idea how to say.
Problem is that unless it's a very large area, there's often not an easy way to look up how local place names are pronounced.
I remember for some of the places, I had taken to searching on YouTube hoping to find local news reports where they said the name out loud lol.
Imagining you looking up this video
Lmao. It's not quite that long, but there is a river nearish to me with a bizarrely long name. I tried looking it up one night and could only ever find people abbreviating it! So I'll never know how the full name is pronounced lol. Maybe no one else knows either.
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Ruairidh: "Rory"
Featherstonehaugh: "Fanshaw"
How to stay safe in the wilderness. We get too many people that aren't from around here that think you can do a hike late in the afternoon wearing sandals and only bringing a water bottle. People don't realize that the wilderness is a dangerous place if you aren't prepared. Weather can change rapidly and you need proper clothing and footwear to account for it. Make sure you have enough time for the hike and bring the essentials just in case something happens and you need to spend a night outdoors.
The death valley Germans comes to mind. The theory from the guy who found their bodies was that they thought area 51 would have patrols/guards like US bases in Germany. They didn't realize that area 51 has a largely unguarded area as part of its "official territory" because death valley does the guarding for them.
Great long form write-up from the guy who found them: Here
I'm somewhat upset at you for having spent literally 8 hours on that wonderful blog. Thank you and also fuck you for that link. People give warnings for movietrope links, I might recommend the same.
Yeah, while I'm not a big hiker myself, being Swiss I know how prepared you need to be.
Walked around in Taiwan when I came across a hiking trail. 1.5 hours, like 150m verticality only, labelled as easy. Cool, but not enough water (only carried a 2l bottle). Went to a local teahouse and got me 4 more bottles to be safe and went for it. Walked past countless others because I was underprepared, and am glad I did because those could have turned out not so nice if I did go.
I've also been caught out by this in other places. I was in Hong Kong and went up to The Peak, which has a 3km path around the top. I thought one water bottle was enough for a flat walk in 35C humid summer heat. It wasn't and ended up rationing water halfway through and chugging two whole bottles of water when I got back to where I could get water again.
English is my first language, but labels on laundry detergent are complete ass. And it seems to be an across the board thing for whatever reason. 90 % of them don't say what it's for on them, just various synonyms for clean, and scent or no scent. The other 10% say "detergent" or something vague in SUPER small text. I just Googled laundry detergent and the results were exactly as I just described. Like shit hopefully this jug of nondescript liquid makes my clothes clean lol.
Asian here, my home is addicted to all scented products including laundry with generous amounts of fabric softener. The river water is so hard it's a necessity in any case, but we love everything having a good smell. In fact, the nearest market sells more scenting products than cleaning products if you can believe it.
the Big Laundry conspiracy runs deeper, fabric softener ruins some fabrics, and degrades most others
Hiking and basic wilderness knowledge.
I live in the Mojave Desert. Simple stuff like knowing not to cut through bushes, wearing proper shoes, avoiding feral dogs, and always having something to defend yourself with when walking in the desert aren't common among a lot of people who aren't originally from here.
Male being good at talking and flirting with girls. Where I grew up (south of Italy) you have to be able to know what to do as a young heterosexual man, otherwise girls would completely ignore you. When I was young, italian girls expected "work" from boys, a lot of work. You could not throw money or take shortcuts (I don't know if it is still valid).
When I moved to north of Europe, in 3 different countries, I realized that for north european guys existing was enough to get many girls. It was so easy, girls flirt with you, they literally go after boys. You could do nothing and a girl would start flirting with you. And being decent at talking with girls meant that any average Italian guy abroad was a Don Giovanni.
does this work for lesbians too?
UK is one of the 3 countries I mentioned! Nights out in uk were a pretty strong (positive) surprise for me
yeah, guess that should be my next vacation lol!
Don't know what you mean by toxic, but it has its issues for sure. As any other country
So everyone in Italy has "acts of service" as their love language? Noted.
If a guy is interested in me, I just expect him to be his best self.
Don't know what to answer.
Normal and healthy mammals relationships start with courtship display https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtship_display.
It is the normal behavior in humans as well. Not doing it would be pretty unusual, and probably worrying.
The difference is that in Italy, girls used to require a long, complex and time consuming courtship. One night stands were not even a thing, they were unthinkable, some fantasy from Hollywood movies.
North European girls not only had much lower expectations from men, required much less effort, but many of them even proactively started the process themselves, flirting and clearly communicating their intentions. This made the process particularly straightforward, but it also didn't allow local men to improve their communication skills. Therefore average Italians looked extremely good with women: charming, listeners, caring... Despite the language barriers
I don't know if it is still valid tough, I have been married for a long time
Is it like that across all Italy, and is there an age group where that kinda does down?
I don't know how it is now. I am an old millennial that has been "out of the market" for over 15 years. It might have changed due to social media.
I can't say if it was all of Italy, because it's rather big. But from discussions with other Italians, it was a pretty general feeling, particularly for those from south of Italy.
That sounds... Tiring
Driving. Moved here from Bangladesh to UK. I did a big mistake by not learning to drive in my country. Now its too expensive here to learn. Here driving is required if you want regular job well paying jobs. Don't be like me. Learn how to drive.
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.
I've never been able to whistle and I'm so sad about it. I can do the grass trick though, and I can also make a whistle/scream sound using an acorn cup.
Mr Rogers was unable to whistle, so you're in very good company!
Oak my god, I’ve never heard of the acorn trick! To the rabbit-hole!
Have at it!
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I can whistle normally, but can't do the two fingers in the mouth nor can I properly do the blade of grass trick. Wish I could though
I couldn't whistle until I had dental surgery and realized it moved my teeth so much I could finally whistle. So I was like 20 the first time I ever whistled.
Could whistle normally as long as I can remember. Tried forever to learn the two finger loud whistles as a kid and never could make a sound but still tried. I still recall when I was around 13 yo reading Goosebumps and randomly did the gesture when suddenly I made the first successfull attempt. I literally turned to the mirror on the side becuase of the surprise and had that Shaq face on Hot Ones. After practicing for a while I discovered that, while you can whistle EXTREMELY loudly this way, you legit hurt your own eardrums the most. Basically kamikaze whistling. I don't use it that often because of it.
The third way of whsitling is by blowing through your palms which makes that owl-like howl. You can basically do the first part of the song in Once Upon a Time in the West this way.
Also, snapping your fingers in a very "snappy" loud and deep kinda way.
I could never do the two finger whistle and still can't. Never tried whistling through my hands before.
But now that I've had multiple dental surgeries I have to be careful when I speak because sometimes I get the siblin s sound now as an adult and if I do it too hard it's like a high pitched squeal.
I could never get a whistle when exhaling no matter what I tried. It takes no effort for me to whistle while inhaling though, but the range and volume are limited this way.
Can't ride a bicycle in my area without very insanely high risk of death. You don't see bikes on roads at all. None of my kids know how to ride. Ive ridden vast distances though. Makes me very sad.
Are there any paved trails they can learn on? Rails-to-trails can be great, as they're naturally flat and straight, if there are any of those near you.
Dutchie here, we have the opposite super power. Bikes are everywhere, we are used to them. Most of the times in urban settings the bike is the best option.
We also get buffs to perception. Being used to bikes means noticing them. 'the Dutch reach', where you open the door with your opposite hand, so you watch out for bikes, is a lie. We don't do that, we've gotten used to looking for them, because everybody knows what's it like to actually be on a bike themselves.
Yeah I lived there when I was young. It is a completely different reality to where I'm living now.
Are you in one of those north American developments with long straight multiline roads without proper sidewalks?
If so, something like this doesn't exist here at all. The smaller roads are not really suitable for high speed driving, and there's not much traffic. The main roads all have wide foot and bike paths on both sides next to them - so only thing you need to know is how to safely cross a road.
In addition to that there are lot of small pedestrian/cycle only paths as shortcuts between parts of the city.
In my immediate surroundings: small-scale farming. The old folks all know how to run a few goats and sheep, will have a few pigs and chickens, a vegetable garden, some fruit and olive trees, grapes, small fields. Once you figure it out you can feed yourself comfortably, but it's a steep learning curve if you didn't grow up with it. Quite a few foreigners who move in because they dream of self-sufficiency overload themselves with new stuff and become overwhelmed. I still can't compete with my neighbors at gardening after 20 years but I'm getting the hang of it.
New England: Staying upright on ice.
Is the secret the penguin walk?
Just relaxing and knowing where your center of weight is helps.
(My practice is Moscow in early spring or late autumn days after everything melted and froze again.)
Dealing with potentially 100°F/38°C summers and sub 0°F/-18°C winters
I can do at least one of those. Very rarely will you see me not in warm clothes.
Flip flops and cargo shorts all year is how.
Close!
Shorts are a year round deal, for sure, but I prefer running shorts. The only specific winter attire is a hoodie. That's basically required from mid fall to mid spring. I'm sure my neighbors laugh at me when I'm out shoveling snow in shorts and a hoodie but that's all you need.
The ability open a glass bottle with a utensil instead of using a bottle opener.
Swimming. My brother in law is from India and he never learned how to swim due to him growing up in a place with only one extremely dirty river and no other lakes or swimming pools near his family. Apparently no one in his family can swim. He kinda can swim now but it still looks funny. A bit like I must have looked from the outside when I learned to swim - as a six years old. I always found this very odd because the dude is smart, hard working and has a degree but it took years and him becoming a dad to realize that swimming is something pretty much everyone can.
Better that than being unable to (such is my dilemma).
Canada BC specifically
The proper use of flushing toilets and bathroom etiquette
The industry I work in has many new Canadians and I believe they all need a crash course on this from the companies they are working for.
Seperating Litter, I guess. Many dont do it correctly anyways, but its worse in other countries.
Speaking English I guess. Not the best, but better than in former eastern countries. But yeah, fuck colonialism, so not really a great thing.
Riding the bike. Everyone should do it, and shocking to see many other countries struggle with that even more.
Which country are you from?
Wakanda
Guess
Germany?
Atlantis
Elbonia
Don't walk on dark places at night.
Skiing is pretty much a must where I live
Sooooo you moved to live in the Netherlands, I assume? Awesome country, do enjoy!
And yes, swimming is a ver basic and required skill there as well
Clapping. Spaniards can clap, other people can't. I took me years to figure out what they mean when they say that foreigners can't clap and learn to do it properly.
Is clapping something other than slapping your hands together in Spain?
This sounds more like a particular region doing a common thing differently rather than other people not knowing how. Like, I'm pretty sure Americans know how to clap. I've seen them do it. Not to brag, but I've done it a time or two m'self.
Yes and no. Of course if you're applauding someone like during a speech or something it doesn't really matter how you clap. But if you're watching live music (especially flamenco but not only) and you're trying to 'accompany' the musicians it does. You often see tourist clapping to some music and not only can't they keep the rhythm they also don't make any sound. Spaniards usually just know how to keep the rhythm, can do complex patterns, can 'double' the claps* and can make them sound nice. If you hit your palms the right way they make this strong snapping sound. Spaniards just know how to do it, for them that's clapping. I had to learn.
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Oh! So Spaniards are better at clapping than everyone else! Oh, well, yeah, that's 100% true based on that video and some memories from my time in Europe oh so long ago.
Wut? Please explain.
I just did in another comment. Basically, if put enough Spaniards in one place they start doing stuff like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW6L_lTrIFg
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As in, being able to make a strong sound while clapping? Or being able to keep rhythm? I know for sure from concerts in America, England, Germany, etc. that people cannot keep a rhythm to save their lives...
Both, actually. They are good and keeping complex rhythms and can make it sound strong.
Have Spaniards finally cracked the world's greatest mystery and learned how to produce the sound of one hand clapping?
Please enlighten us
You mean that sound of finger bones clicking against one another? Just have to clap sufficiently hard and fast.
How to dress for -30C weather. How to get out if you fall through ice into water.
TIL there are extra steps if you fall through ice.
Not that it says much, I haven't even mastered the basic steps.
It's basically just dont try to stand, stay flat and roll away from the hole. At least that's how I was taught
Oh you mean after someone has climbed out? That I knew.
Carry ice picks (more like ice awls) with you when you travel on ice. If you fall through ice turn back to the direction you came from and start breaking the ice with your elbows (no use trying to get up as long as the ice is so brittle you can easily break it), then drag yourself up and start rolling away from the hole and trace your steps back. Also, try to get rid of the wet clothes as soon as you can.
It's cycling here as well in the Netherlands. Additionally in my circles: starting a campfire.
In Germany a lot of people reduced the amount of cycling they did once they had a driving license - now here in Finland a lot more adults keep using bikes, and also use it in Winter. Back in Germany I always was the odd one for cycling in the snow.
Starting a camp fire is something I'm teaching my kids just because I don't want them to burn my house down - being allowed to play with fire outside along with an explanation of which are the dangerous bits took the fascination out of all the fire starting equipment in the house.
Starting fire is pretty relevant skill in Finland for multiple reasons from saunas to cabins to campfires. While I partially learned at home, scouts are pretty good here and definitely taught me a lot of wilderness and survival skills.
I technically "know how" to start a campfire, but the actual process is too much work. And then when someone does start a campfire, where I live, for some reason they can't do it without singing the Campfire Song Song. Not something I look forward to.
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how to harvest produce, my town is surrounded from farmland, so we learned how to harvest everything from tomatoes to maize, from lemons to turnips
Parallel parking. And overall parking in anything else than a US parking lot. People have no idea how to move their car around if it doesn’t go straight forward or backwards. I’ve even seen people failing simple K-Turns. I have both a French and US drivers license. Also manual transmission, but that’s less surprising.
This is the one part of driving I actually got a perfect score on.
Paying attention to the weather to know if rain or severe winds are coming. I know people have access to hourly forecasts but locals can just tell when the weather will be bad.
Where I am the weather is unpredictable for everyone, even locals. The sky could look 100% ready for rain and then it's like "pscyhe!"
Swimming. It's sometimes dangerous for foreign children to see Dutch kids swim and try to join them.
Simple math like additions and subtractions. Giving change back seems like trigonometry for some. (Note, I actually do enjoy trigonometry. It’s so much easier to calculate angles with fractions of Pi than the random 180°)
My mom didn't let me use a calculator as a kid and I'm really glad now. I can do simple calculations much faster than if I had to use a calculator.
I didn't learn how to ride a bike till I was seven or eight, im central US
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.
Being able to recognize poison ivy. Growing up in a forest, it was one of many basic automatic skills learned in childhood, and I see and avoid it without much thought. I've had to prevent many friends from other regions or countries from causing themselves serious harm by ignorance of poison ivy, though.
I feel like Latin Americans in general take for granted that you're supposed to pull and push everything to make it work. Sometimes with clever but shitty and overspecific solutions for the problem, or shifting the goals to something more achievable. Some examples:
Three examples:
::: spoiler home oven
The top of the inner part of your oven is partially corroded, so the top heating element does not stay in place. If you leave it as is, it'll get in the way, burn you, and burn your food. And you don't have money for a new oven. You're reasonably sure that the heating element is coated with some elec-proof stuff.
So what do you do? You put a big nail across the hole caused by the corrosion, and hold the element to that nail with some wire. "Just temporarily". (Nothing is more permanent than temporary hacks.)
:::
::: spoiler Linguistics, field work
Linguistics. You're making field work on phonetics. You need clear records of speakers speaking their variety, that means good mic + noiseless environment. And yet you're studying a variety mostly spoken by farmers, and the ones willing to help you out can't travel, so you'll need to record them from a cellphone in their farm, and your record will be filled with pigs oinking, birds chirping, and a rooster going "CRAAAA" nonstop.
The solution? ...screw phonology, your paper is now about syntax. It's far easier to detect by ear if the speaker used pronoun reduplication than if he used [ɾ], [ɹ] or [ɻ].
:::
::: spoiler Chemistry, organic synthesis
You got a synthesis route demanding glacial acetic acid (HAc). Except that the HAc bottle is empty, requesting another will take a week because bureaucracy, and oxidising ethanol to HAc through permanganate is bound to get someone screeching at you "YOU'RE WASTING OUR REAGENTS!!!".
Your solution? Run some quick maths on what's cheaper: 1) to distil supermarket vinegar, or 2) to use bleach to oxidise ethanol at some loss. Then you do it.
:::
In India we call this sort of engineering 'jugaad'. And we do it all the time, sometimes to a dangerous level.
[Replying to self to avoid editing the above]
Ah, on a more local area, Paraná: whisking homemade mayo for the Sunday potato salad. One does not use bottled mayo for that, it got to be handmade.
These new lines
Waste so much space.
I grew up in the US northeast. The general lack of knowing how to dress warm everywhere else is pretty surprising, so I guess that's the skill I'd pick.
Hah, would you look at that. Nice to hear other countries being like that!