Can you swim?

[Sheilbh]

Yes, I learned to swim when I was a little kid at the shore, but they made everyone take swim classes in school, so I didn't know anyone at all growing up who didn't know how.  I guess I kinda assumed everyone did, really.

Same

[Monoriu]

Most schools in HK do not have a swimming pool.  My school was kinda special.  It didn't have a pool, but it did possess the development rights to a small lot near the school.  That was worth hundreds of millions. 

At some point the school decided to sell the rights to a developer, and one of the conditions of the sale was that the developer needed to build an indoor pool for the exclusive use of the school.  So toward the end of my highschool years we had a pool. 

I found that half of the class couldn't swim.  At the end of the school year, the same people still couldn't swim, because swimming lessons consisted of theory and self-study 

[merithyn]

We had lessons at the local pool, had a wading pool at the local park, my mom was a champion swimmer in Connecticut before she moved to Iowa so she taught us, plus we had lessons in school. All three of us kids are pretty good swimmers, though none of us competed in the sport in school.

Even with local pools everywhere in Des Moines and lessons in school, I knew plenty of people who couldn't swim. It just seemed... odd.

[Monoriu]

I was lucky.  My dad was a senior civil servant, so he was eligible for quarters.  Back then, the majority of HK government quarters were occupied by British expats, who demanded and received private pools.  So I could learn. 

[saskganesh]

Yes.  Competitive swimming and water polo until the end of high school (city and "school" leagues), but not fish-like enough to get a scholarship anywhere.  Welp.

Apparently on Languish, the ability to cross from one side of the pool to the other without touching the ground is fish-like. 

.
that's difficult with wading pools.

[Sahib]

WTF? There have to be more than two people besides me who can't swim 

[Malthus]

Yes; I haven't really swum distances since I was a teen, though (I was once required to swim a mile in order to qualify for a place on a brigantine sailing camp).

Carl is learning to swim, and he's only 3 and a half.

[PDH]

When we were becalmed in the doldrums south of the Equator after we left the Galapagos I went swimming off of the sailboat in the middle of the ocean.  That was cool, but it was 500 miles to shore, so I am glad I didn't have to try to make that...

[Cecil]

Been swimming since I was three years old. Probably dont do it as well these days but yeah, still got the basics.

[Ed Anger]

The water rejects me, so people try to burn me as a witch.

[Berkut]

Hard to imagine not knowing how to swim. Clan Berkut are taught to swim whether they like it or not at a very young age.

[lustindarkness]

I learned to swim in the ocean, head above water with no style kinda swimming, no swim team material.

[merithyn]

WTF? There have to be more than two people besides me who can't swim 

Apparently not 

[sbr]

I do. It's funny with me, because when I was a kid (like 10 y.o.) my parents would send me to swimming lessons and it was a horror as I couldn't learn it at all, and I was afraid of water and whatnot. Then, when I was like 17 I just went into a swimming pool and started swimming.

That sounds pretty similar to me, but a little earlier than 17.

[DGuller]

I can swim, but I can't stay afloat while doing it.