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.
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.