In a private pool, in a quiet Sydney suburb, Preethi Karthikeyan is learning to swim.
“The breathing is difficult and your eyes are suddenly closed,” she says. “It’s scary for me.”
The mother-of-one didn’t take any lessons growing up in India.
But after she realised her two-year-old son Raj loved being in the water, Preethi and her husband Karthik decided to learn together.
They were reluctant to learn at a public pool with people watching. Preethi also didn’t want to have to wear a flesh-baring swimming costume, preferring to wear long sleeved active wear instead.
“Suppose a public pool says ‘don’t wear active wear,’” she says. “I [wouldn’t] go to the pool.”
Petrina Liyanage of ‘Swim with a Smile’ says she teaches many new migrants who are scared or embarrassed of learning to swim.
She now has so many adult clients she no longer teaches children.
“I would say 100 per cent, every single one, come to me because they want private lessons,” she says.
“They don't want people watching them.”
At 59, Philippines-born Rey Ico has wanted to learn to swim for the past ten years.
“I didn’t enjoy the water, I didn’t enjoy the Australian culture,” he says.
He struggled to find a teacher willing to instruct him in private.
“It’s embarrassing for an old man to be drowning in the pool,” he says.
He now drives two hours twice a week to attend private lessons.
After 12 sessions, his confidence is improving.
“Before, I could only go knee-high in the water.
“Now, I’ve been treading [water] and I’ve been doing freestyle and backstroke, and I’m looking forward to doing that with my grandkids.”
