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.

  • @[email protected]
    17•1 year ago

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

    • @[email protected]
      4•1 year ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
        2•1 year ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]
          1•1 year ago

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

      • @TaalnaziNederlands
        1•6 months ago

        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…

        • @[email protected]
          1•6 months ago

          and to then wash your hands with soap.

          The grossness is because it might not clean your backside as thoroughly as water.

    • @Lauchs
      3•1 year ago

      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…)