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

aard@kyu.de to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 570 points –

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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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!

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.