How do the Natives in Avatar Find Out If They're a Bender ?

[Orwill Yatke]

No duh Rawgii. Glitch you are...hmmm....strange...
I think Guru Patik counts as a non-airbending Air Nomad. We see other nomads and we even see gliders. Monks aren't too uncommon either according to the pirates. The benders find out they can bend when they are kids. I suppose an older person could also discover they can bend their native element.

[Rawgii Elekt]

im quite sure your amazingest
but frankly no i dont get it
what are you saying

[Rawgii Elekt]

No duh Rawgii. Glitch you are...hmmm....strange...
I think Guru Patik counts as a non-airbending Air Nomad. We see other nomads and we even see gliders. Monks aren't too uncommon either according to the pirates. The benders find out they can bend when they are kids. I suppose an older person could also discover they can bend their native element.

i concure
someone get a spell check on "concure"

[absinthe_spoons]

Please don't double-post. Use the edit button instead. Also include more substance in your post than "I concur". Also also proper syntax is appreciated.

[TEGtheAvatar]

No duh Rawgii. Glitch you are...hmmm....strange...
I think Guru Patik counts as a non-airbending Air Nomad. We see other nomads and we even see gliders. Monks aren't too uncommon either according to the pirates. The benders find out they can bend when they are kids. I suppose an older person could also discover they can bend their native element.

Well, Guru Pathik isn't technically an air nomad. He explained he was a spiritual brother of the air nomads, which makes me think that he might not have been born an air nomad, but he might have acheived enlightenment though the air nomad culture.

[Rawgii Elekt]

sorry bout double post
i'm more of a nature person so my computer skills need work
Since you asked nicely I'd be glad to use proper english sentance structure.
Guru Patik might be an air nomad doesnt really say but all the same i think there are still air nomads around
ie Cave of Two Lovers
the gaang meets a group of nomads who are "happy to go wherever the wind takes us"

[Orwill Yatke]

You are right it isn't openly expressed, just hinted at.
The people in Avatar find out how to bend by being themselves. The bending is naturally a part of them and so identifying and embracing oneself leads to knowledge of their abilities. They know who they are and their bending occurs when they realize it. That is if they can bend. If they can bend they realize it by interacting with their world. Kinda like learning to talk.

[TEGtheAvatar]

sorry bout double post
i'm more of a nature person so my computer skills need work
Since you asked nicely I'd be glad to use proper english sentance structure.
Guru Patik might be an air nomad doesnt really say but all the same i think there are still air nomads around
ie Cave of Two Lovers
the gaang meets a group of nomads who are "happy to go wherever the wind takes us"

The way you put that gives me an idea. I don't think there are any true air nomads left, but I do think that some people learned their philosphy and might have achieved enlightenment through the air nomad culture and the ruins of the air temples. Maybe that's why Guru Pathik considers himself a 'spirtual brother' of the air nomads and yet he isn't an air bender himself. Same with the sing nomads. They might have stumbled across an air temple and the freedom the air nomad philosphy described enticed them, and made them nomadic.

[Orwill Yatke]

There aren't any Airbenders or Flying Bison left, and Momo was the last lemur. The Nomads embody the philosophy of the Air Nomads but I think they are more physical manifestations of the world keeping part of the culture alive.
Guru Patik said that he was a personal friend of Monk Gyatso. He is at least as old as Aang. If he was an outsider it didn't seem like it. I think Guru Patik is an Air Nomad affiliate. It's not important as to what the title is, that is an earthly attachment. You give up worldly possessions like that sometimes. Anyways.... Guru Patik is connected to the Air Nomads because each Avatar has a mentor in the way of mastering the Avatar State. At least Roku and Aang did. Both Avatars had mentors from their native elements. So yeah. Guru Patik is associated with the Air Nomads, he doesn't classify himself as an Air Nomad but I think you get what I'm saying. I like your speculative ideas TEG. I think that we all agree that the Air Nomad culture survived even if the Airbenders were pushed to extinction.

[GIL595]

I don't think that discovering that some sort of baby was a bender would pass throw a process of sneezing or something like it,if so, an airbender would cause a tornado just by breathing(speculation only)... Aang could blow jets of air with his lungs and mouth but it doesn´t mean that he would blow everything away everytime he breathes.
I think bending would be revealed throw emotion, just like Katara finding accidently Aangs iceberg because she was mad and bended without noticing. The key to bending is control, you're bending is stronger if you show your emotions in your bending but control is lost. That's the function of a master in my opinion, teach how to control and understand what's this spiritual thing called bending and understand how it's and extended version of you and to know it's capacities.
Myke and Bryan made clear that bending isn't genetic, it's spiritual, and the number of bender implies other conditions. All air nomads were benders because they're population was small.
Number of benders in each Nation:
Air Nomads - 100% benders
Water Tribes - 75% benders
Fire Nation - 50% benders
Earth Kingdom - 25/30% benders

I'm not sure of the numbers but it's moreless like that above. The seasons also affect the number of benders born and it's logic wich nation belongs to each season...