• brezel@piefed.social
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    2 days ago

    how is that possible? i know zero people who can’t swim and i live in a country with no access to the sea or anything.

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        This is America. We have a significant number of people that can’t read and words are everywhere.

        Some of that comes with welcoming those from other countries. We are a nation of immigrants. The drowning victims in this case were from Honduras. I feel for the children. They likely lost both their parents in this drowning.

    • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Lots of people never learn. I only learned because the apartment complex behind my house as a kid had a pool and my friends and I would hop the fence and use it. Some kid pushed me into the deep end one day and I learned real quick.

      Now as an adult, we’ve put our kid in swim classes but that wasn’t something our families had the resources to do when we were kids. My wife still doesnt know how to swim.

    • bstix@feddit.dk
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      2 days ago

      I can swim, but not good enough to rescue someone else, and definitely not in a stream.

      I have a weird lack of buoyancy in my legs that makes it extremely exhausting just to keep myself affloat, so I never bothered pursuing it further.

      I do know how to float, but it only works in salt water. I can however easily dive to the bottom of any pool without effort, so I guess I’ve got that going for me.

      • ski11erboi@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I’m also someone who can’t float so swimming is exhausting for me. If I ever have to swim to save my life I’m pretty confident I would die. I stay away from water.

    • digitalFatteh@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Different countries handle it different ways. Growing up in the UK (Rivers, Reservoirs and being and island) and Qatar (surrounded by the Sea on 3/4 of its mass) swimming lessons were mandatory all the way to High School. I know of a school in Dagenham that continued swimming classes back in 1990’s, but saying that, a lot of governments tend to axe shit left and right so I’d be surprised if it’s still a thing. I still remember the detol smell of washing your feet before getting climbing into the pool in some schools.