I certainly understand that’s where he’s assigned. I’m just saying that if the Taipei police force wanted to make the city a safer place, post his ass outside with a scooter and a book of blank traffic tickets.
Well that’s something you can tell the commissioner of the national police agency. They have had a few traffic enforcement and it did result in better behavior…
Yeah, my lips would be purple in the kiddie pool (the one kept at probably 37 degrees C) at the Y when I was little. Always shivering. The problem with little kid classes is that there isn’t enough movement to stay warm. As I got older, I continued swimming lessons by choice because I saw that a lot of my friends didn’t know how to swim (despite being significantly more financially well-off and involved in plenty of other, very expensive sports), so this was something I could “be good at” when we went to the pool together. I had a number of instructors who would open the doors to the outside in the dead of winter (we’re talking blizzards outside) “because it’ll make the water feel warmer”. Sure it will, but now I’m never going to get out of the water.
I think there are probably more exceptions than expectations. I don’t think I know any Taiwanese people under the age of 80 who go swimming ever. I used to live near the beach and no one ever went in the water “because it’s dangerous”. That’s a mindset that would have changed by now if everyone was getting real swimming instruction. My high school gym class final exams included nonstop swimming for 30 minutes, no touching the ropes or the sides or stopping to tread water or you failed and had to take it again. After all the swimming we did in class, I don’t think anyone really struggled with it. But you really could not graduate from my high school without passing that test. You could fail every other fitness thing on there and they would just give you an F, but failing swimming was not an option. I found this annoying at the time but I realize it’s actually quite privileged. There are so many deaths in lakes and rivers in poorer communities because no one knows how to swim because there aren’t any resources to give them lessons. And it’s not like you can spend four years being forced in swim in gym class and then forget if you fall off a dock somewhere when you’re 40.
The 50 meters rule should be a requirement, end of discussion. It would probably save a lot of lives and have a lot less people who are so terrified of the water here.
@gain has informed me that this is completely untrue, so I’m not sure. It did seem like a particulary odd rule. Possibly some students were messing with me.
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Which has nothing to do with the nanny state. The nanny state is when the government makes laws and regulations to control you ostensibly for your own good i.e. wearing seat belts. It isn’t concerned with decisions made by private individuals.
Nanny state is a term of British origin that conveys a view that a government or its policies are overprotective or interfering unduly with personal choice
-wiki
My wife has informed me that the swimming requirement for graduation is nonsense.
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I think you dont yet understand how government institutional quotas work yet. Gotta either use or contribute to the budget 
Ummm…wearing seatbelts is a good example of how to keep people safe because they won’t keep themselves and children safe without them. In Taiwan, I find it appalling how many toddlers just crawl around the whole car and even sit in the driver seat with daddy while he drives like a maniac down the road. I wish the government here would crack down on that.
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I was replying to a comment, no to the main post.
My opinion is that if teenagers can’t even stand up against their own parents, how could they, later in life as adults, stand up against the nanny state’s goverment regulations? That’s the reason I said things will not change. The goverment acts like the parents act because they think they know better and the other, may it be the son, daughter or the general population, has not a better judgement than themselves.
Maybe it’s also because all the money the state saves in hospitals in countries with social health system, or maybe is because they don’t want to lose too many tax payers.
It probably is true for some schools, but definitely not the norm.
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I can’t say it’s that much of a nanny state because anyone can walk into a chemical store and buy chemicals for all kinds of purpose, so getting chems to make narcotics or explosives isn’t hard. What kept us safe is people’s stupidity (such as someone trying to blow up a HSR train with chemicals that didn’t work instead just made a bunch of smoke).
Mine 1 year old got a cold, and soon older child gets it too. We were running around crying kids for an hour around midnight.
When I opened our door of apartment in the morning, there were 3 stickers from neighbors.
“Walls are thin, please have consideration of others”
“Don’t run around apartment during night piece”
“Go back where you come from and make noise there”
I got bad looks from two neighbors, no one asked either kids are fine.
Germans are all about rules, I always feel liberated in Taiwan parking car in the middle of road next to 7/11.
,
Taiwan is a free country (before covid)
So are the neighbors saying this to you in Germany, or in Taiwan? You didn’t say where.
Germany ofc. Taiwanese society is pro child society and they always show extra consideration for kids
I don’t know how Taiwan’s birthrate compares to Germany, but I can say for sure that I saw more puppies in baby strollers in Taipei than actual babies. I’m assuming that people in Taiwan actively choosing to procreate isn’t exactly a popular idea.
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most Taiwanese claims due to way too low of an income compared to their parents, they won’t have children. China is even worse with the one child policy and now there aren’t enough women to sustain the population… oops.
I just asked my son too. He said it was 100m nonstop, but they didn’t fail anyone that touched the bottom.
He said they never fail anyone in PE class.
I understand that taiwans schools dont have pools. I dont know if this has changed any. But most people grew up in taiwan without any swimming classes.
Weird since taiwan is an island.
IN the American school system children are taught quite early on about swimming so most Americans already can swim at an early age. I dont know if most American high schools have pools but in Taiwan TAS had a pool and so did MOrrison Academy in Taichung.
I think its important Taiwans high schools (and even better if Taiwan grade schools) have pools and put in place a good swimming program to teach people how to swim. Many people will be saved .
However, its important to remember that taiwan’s coastline is generally dangerous for swimming. Many rip tides and strong currents. People need to be aware how to spot dangerous rip and strong currents.
And taiwans rivers are often very unsafe to swim in as well.
So taiwan outdoors is not generally safe to swim in. One needs to be an expert swimmer and also learn to spot dangers.
Is that the case in taiwan high schools with pools? Man sure was different for tommy in TAS. We had different swim classes for boys and girls oddly enough but after school open swimming lots of girls there with the boys and we often had chicken fights where we get to carry the girls on our shoulders… fun.
we boys often went to watch girls on their swimming hour…bikini time !! And the girls knew we were watching and were happy to put on a show…funny the girls never came out to watch the guys in our swim hour.
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