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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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[–] CassowaryTom@lemmy.one 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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"?

[–] FinalBoy1975@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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.

[–] BottleOfAlkahest@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] FinalBoy1975@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] CassowaryTom@lemmy.one 4 points 1 year ago

Got it. That makes way more sense. Thanks for taking the time to explain it.

[–] thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

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.