Do you think too many Koreans do not know how to swim?

[schuylerclark]

I remember seeing a poll once that said 3 in 4 American men claim to be able to play the guitar. As a pro/am level musician, I can assure you that not even 25% of American men can play the guitar. What people report about themselves on polls often has more to do with the phrasing of the question and how they view themselves than objective reality.

 

[covediver]

i was a lifeguard/swim instructor in Alaska for a number of years. We have many rural communities that do not have any type of swimming infrastructure but rely on water as a means of subsistence and transportation. We have a lot of ponds and lakes, but it is too cold to have any systematic learn to swim programs in most of them. The major communities on the road system and some of the rural hub cities have pools. Prior to the 1980s, few communities had ools. Drownings among children in area lakes has been cited as a reason that some communities pushed for community pools in the 1970s. an influx of oil money in the 1980s allowed many of our existing pools to be constructed. When I first moved to Alaska I was amazed at how many adults could not swim, but they had few opportunities as children to learn. Iceland on the othe hand mandates that all children have swimming lessons and that most communities have some kind of pool.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

In the US there is a population that doesn't know how to swim that is disproportionate to the overall population. Even among themselves there is not just an acceptance of they don't know how to swim, but they in fact can't swim. This is totally due to the inherent bigotry and racism that the country was founded on and continues to this day.
It is purely a matter of oppression/segregation from the earliest days when facilities were denied to them and that continues in some parts of the country to this day.
It has been proven over and over that they can learn to swim when give the opportunity. But, there are still SCUBA instructors who don't believe the people can swim.
I have seen that same prejudice towards Asians right here on this board in comments by instructors that teach in Okinawa, Guam, Japan, China, and Korea.
It's complete BS. Watch any Olympic Games. But the crap still gets vomited out of the mouths of these ignorant bigots.

If you're talking about black people (and it seems you are, albeit veiled in language) how do you explain the fact that most Caribbean islanders can't swim?

I've had this conversation with friends and acquaintances from Jamaica and Haiti and the biggest response was fear.

Same outcome, different hypotheses.

 

[Jcp2]

Most Grenadians don’t know how to swim. But one woman is changing that. - CSMonitor.com

www.csmonitor.com

 

[Jcp2]

Majority Worldwide Cannot Swim; Most of Them Are Women

The first World Drowning Prevention Day is Sunday. Research from the Lloyd's Register Foundation World Risk Poll in 2019 found that 55% of the world's adults could not swim unassisted.

news.gallup.com

This is the complete article with the country data. Note that there is another table before the one already presented. The ability to swim across populations is correlated to sex and income. It’s relatively expensive to learn how to swim and and exposure to swimming inspection at an early childhood level is the most beneficial in teaching people to be comfortable in the water.

 

[lowwall]

This is the complete article with the country data.

Nope, it only has the region data. That's where I got the table I posted above. For the country data you have to go here...

Question 11 on the 2019 survey was "Are you able to swim without any assistance at all?"

I assume the raw data is buried in the zipped 68MB Excel file linked from the bottom of this page:
Data & resources - The Lloyd's Register Foundation World Risk Poll

Since no one else has volunteered, I downloaded and took a look at the data.

Here's the percentage that responded "Yes" to the question above for the countries that they defined as "East Asia":

China 25.22%
Mongolia 26.32
Taiwan 42.87
S. Korea 53.50
Japan 62.05

Here's the numbers for the primary countries of scubaboard readers:
USA 83.69%
UK 86.03
Canada 82.80

 

[dhkim030203]

Nope, it only has the region data. That's where I got the table I posted above. For the country data you have to go here...


Since no one else has volunteered, I downloaded and took a look at the data.

Here's the percentage that responded "Yes" to the question above for the countries that they defined as "East Asia":

China 25.22%
Mongolia 26.32
Taiwan 42.87
S. Korea 53.50
Japan 62.05

Here's the numbers for the primary countries of scubaboard readers:
USA 83.69%
UK 86.03
Canada 82.80

I think this pretty much confirms my initial thought that Chinese replies were skewing with the results.

62% stats for Japan is weird though. I do know that swimming taught in schools is usually basic, but I didn't expect a country with a pretty much universal school swimming program (Japan) would score lower than a country that doesn't (USA, Canada).

 

[happy-diver]

Who swims, why bother if you only plonk around rivers and beaches three times a year
Those indeed have the greatest need

Swimmers swim

 

[lowwall]

I think this pretty much confirms my initial thought that Chinese replies were skewing with the results.

62% stats for Japan is weird though. I do know that swimming taught in schools is usually basic, but I didn't expect a country with a pretty much universal school swimming program (Japan) would score lower than a country that doesn't (USA, Canada).

I just read a report on swimming in Japan. They had comparable rates to China through the post-war period, i.e. very low. Swimming instruction for children became a national priority after a ferry disaster in 1955 where over 100 children died who would have survived if they could have stayed afloat for just the few minutes it took for rescue to arrive. However the ramp up was not immediate and it wasn't until the '80s that the large majority of elementary schools had pools and swimming education became more or less universal.

Given the age structure of Japan, it's not surprising that overall swimming rates are still low relative to other developed nations. But in a couple of decades it should match if not exceed US and Europe.

 

[dhkim030203]

I just read a report on swimming in Japan. They had comparable rates to China through the post-war period, i.e. very low. Swimming instruction for children became a national priority after a ferry disaster in 1955 where over 100 children died who would have survived if they could have stayed afloat for just the few minutes it took for rescue to arrive. However the ramp up was not immediate and it wasn't until the '80s that the large majority of elementary schools had pools and swimming education became more or less universal.

Given the age structure of Japan, it's not surprising that overall swimming rates are still low relative to other developed nations. But in a couple of decades it should match if not exceed US and Europe.

Was it the 'The history and problem of swimming education in Japan'? I believe it is one of the few, English language reports on swimming education in Japan. I think another book called 'Shifting Currents: A World History of Swimming' also briefly mentioned it but it's highly obscure and honestly... Weird.

The claim that the 1955 ferry disaster leading to the increased building of swimming pools is dubious at best. It is parroted a lot in Japanese media but as far as I know the only original source is a book by one lone Japanese historian.

In the ferry accident, the ship sank and killed 168. But on the other hand 600+ survived and the low survival rates of students were attributed to the quick sinking of the ship and in general being overpowered and trampled by much bigger adults while trying to escape. Btw it wasn't the only 1950s Japanese student related maritime incident.

People like Jigoro Kano (The founder of Judo and acclaimed educator) had been advocates of the health benefits of swimming since the 1890s. Swimming summer camps for students in Japan started at around the 1930s or so, I think.

Perhaps the fact that almost everything in Japan was leveled by WW2 had an impact on those born in the early postwar era (1960~70), like you mentioned. I think we should compare Japan to, say, an Eastern European country.