Asklemmy

43945 readers

922 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

422

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

287 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] ekky43@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wait, that's how that happens? I always found it weird with those signs to not poop while standing up.

[–] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

oilets 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 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.

[–] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

That's interesting. We copied a lot of stuff from the USSR; this might also have come from there.