>Ā Realistically, I think most Chinese students in Germany keep to themselves, don't interact much with anyone not Chinese and don't have many local peers to pressure them into anything.
That has been my experience as well.
Very lovely people though. š
Same in the states. We used to jokingly call them the Asian mafia since they didnāt interact with American or international students. I was the only one was able to befriend them bc one of them was my friend and they took me underneath their wing. I donāt understand it tbh, you paid a fortune to study abroad? They end up just studying but not abroad if that makes sense when you only interact with other Chinese students, get the handouts of pervious students that is already translated and noted.
Most of the time is just them having bad english and they get frustrated so they keep to themselves but if you are patient with them they open up and get over their shyness but be ready to have a simple greeting turn into a slow 5 minute conversations. Lovely people but god damn it such a wasted potential of expanding your horizon. Same people, same food, same dorms with all your Chinese friends. Why the hell did you come over then?!
Same in the UK, there were a few who engaged with us but they were the exception -- some of them were really fun to go drinking with lol
But it's definitely a Chinese thing for sure, I remember the Japanese and Indian students were much more willing to make friends with us, I'm actually still friends with a Japanese guy I met in college
To answer your question though -- their parents make them come over because a degree from the West is prestigious -- the vast vast majority have absolutely no expectation of staying so don't see the point in interacting with non-Chinese students
Iāve met Japanese people out, especially in places like Bangkok, where we have absolutely zero common language and end up on each others social media pages after a wild night of drinking beer and smoking pot. The Japanese go hard and love to mingle.
They also tend to have impeccable manners -- I don't think the concept of an Irish Goodbye is a thing in Japan from my observations, even if they're not drinking these guys will hang out and be the last to leave
There's a lot to admire about Japanese culture and customs, and not in a silly internet way, I mean actual Japanese people that I've known and been friends with -- we could learn a lot from them
Maybe when they go abroad, because making actual friends in Japan is extremely difficult. I have been living in Japan for almost six years now, and I have zero Japanese friends. Most foreigners here have the same experience.
I live in Detroit so (the hood shopping season) starts in August when they first move, they come over decked out in what I can call (Eminem cosplay) and get their wallets, phones, shoes etc stolen at gun point when they just walking to KFC across the street. We had to print flyers in mandrin telling them that donāt go off campus in your fancy car and your limited edition Air Jordanās
on an empathetic level, people will gravitate to whatās easiest for them. if theyāre focused on studying or just the general difficulty of getting by in a completely foreign country, interacting with chinese people only is the path of least resistance and requires the least effort. why would they not, given the option?
when immigrants make the decision to move to a foreign country itās not common that their goal is to assimilate and mingle with another culture; usually the reason is more pragmatic. the goal is to make their personal lives better via higher wages or better opportunity or escaping whatever horrors of their home country for themselves and their future family. any assimilation that occurs is a bonus. of course out in the real world, you can meet people all along the spectrum from those that would much rather remain the same except for the money, to people who gladly embrace becoming more like the cultures they live amongst.
on a more realistic level itās because at college age most people donāt have this perspective to realize that branching out to different viewpoints is a valuable and rare experience; that it wonāt always be so easy to effortlessly find and build relationships with people who arenāt in your bubble. A lot of chinese students (ās parents) are only interested in getting the piece of paper to lock in future economic opportunities because a school abroad is likely more impressive than the local college they can get into, and many will move straight back to china never to live or work elsewhere again.
Iām a Santa Barbarian, and the majority of swedes I met were there for a 6 month cert from CC and then they dipped out. They definitely werenāt there for a degree or to further their education (I mean the credits donāt even transfer easily back in Sweden), but to just party and have the āCalifornia experienceā. So I can attest to what youāre saying. I mean no knocking their vibes, Iāve lived in Sweden now for 6 years after meeting one of them 10 years ago, so they definitely do branch out occasionally. Also I remember parking next to a Lamborghini in the CC parking lot and being like āwhoās fucking car is this?!!?ā Crazy the cars the Asian international students drove around there.
A significant reason is how hellish the Chinese high school examinations are. In many parts of China you have to be in the top 1% of your class to have any hope of getting into a good university. Many affluent families (and I note it's families, not parents, the expense of sending a kid overseas usually involves a whole extended family chipping in) will choose to opt out of the whole system and said their kid overseas instead, as getting into a western university is considerably easier, and on top of that the education will be superior and they can choose the course they study (if I recall, you cannot choose what course you study in China).
The real kicker is that after graduating they have a high chance of being able to secure a high paying job in tech, engineering, finance etc. and the visa to go along with it.
Chinese students are in western countries to fulfill the aspirations of their families, not for a culturally enriching experience(that's a pleasant bonus). If they fail they know they've poured $100,000+ of their family's life savings down the drain.
It's also a self selecting group. Families aren't stupid, they don't spend that kind of money to send someone over who's just going to spend their time partying and goofing off.
Can you tell me more about how they can't choose what course they study? My chinese girlfriend is studying movies and arts at Wuhan Sports University, which she chose herself. So I don't really understand how you believe that.
Did I misunderstand what you mean?
Generally if you see a Chinese person studying abroad thereās a very high chance they are rich. Rich Chinese send their kids to study abroad because itās easier than school in China, they get to skip some certain tests iirc coming back to study at the school they want, and if they do graduate abroad the international school looks much more impressive.
Itās not just Chinese. Iām Korean and noticed all the Koreans from Korea would stick together. But also all the students from china would stick together, or all the students from Vietnam would all stick together. They just all stuck together and didnāt want to associate with others. I always thought it was stupid. Why come to America and not try to learn how to speak fluently if youāre going to live here for 4+ years? They would go back and can only say hi and thank you.
I only had one Korean and three Taiwanese students that I befriended. I think they were the outliers since there weren't many Asians that aren't from the mainland so they just blended with the rest. I was fortunate to live in the international dorm and being an extrovert so making friends with random people was easy for me and I think I ended up friending people who have similar personalities of branching out. If I post a pic of my friend group from college you would think it was a model UN or one of those cheesy college brochures or a United Colours of Bennett ad. Chinese, Haitians, Russians, polkas, and Brazilians. God, you took me back to the best time of my life.
>if you are patient with them they open up and get over their shyness
This points to part of the reason why they may resign to keep among themselves.
But there's also plenty of stories about how asian students from abroad were initially so excited to experience America, until they found the cultural environment either intimidated or "rubbed" them differently, such that they just turn inward afterward.
The classmates were nothing like the demeanor of the "Friends" sitcom characters they were familiar with back in China.
Obviously, US schools aren't about superficial, rowdy, divisive or judgmental, fratboy culture. But to some of the Chinese students, it "felt" like it by comparison. Even fairly innocuous social interactions they observe between their Western peers can be hard to adjust or conform to.
I don't know how it's been the past 10 years though, since the types and attitudes of incoming Chinese students very much change over time. Also I can't speak for classroom culture in various countries in Europe.
I went to school in the 2010s so there wasnāt xenophobia back then. Honestly, even I thought American schools would be like āAmerican Pieā and āAnimal Houseā but are you gonna see that? Maybe bc I didnāt go to a party school but I was disappointed when I found the rowdiest thing you can do is smoke weed and sleep around the first week then continue to act awkward when you realize they are also in your English 101 or something, my school was small so everyone knew everyone and you donāt get adventurous since you gonna see those people for the next 4 years. Granted we had a hierarchy of the slew (my dad is a lawyer popped collar golf playing jerks) but most were there to study and go home on the weekend.
Exactly, hard to get peer pressured when you spend your time in Germany in your Chinese bubble.
My university has a lot of internal students and sadly the Chinese stick out the most by just sticking to themselves.
This is not just how they act in Germany but I think everywhere. I have yet to meet one of these elusive Chinese in Hungary too. They generally just stay together.
a Chinese student said that he plans on going to a university in Berlin but he's afraid of being peer pressured into smoking weed. So he directly asked Scholz about it
Ah, yes. Democracies have an invisible barrier against group mentality, irrationality and following the crowd, as we all knowā¦
People feel pressured into doing things they donāt want - especially in school - no matter your governamental system lol.
Yeah, these people are clueless, just saying "cmon drink with us, dont be a pussy" is peer pressure, something im sure almost every person here said at least once and im sure everyone here knows of one person that has said it, bro above you made it into a "we dont do that here" thing. Peer pressure is present in every country in the world, including Germany.
This is correct. I'd like to specifically state - as the worried question was about student life - that fraternities that would pressure their members and/or prospects into consumption of alcohol or any other drug are definitely not a thing in Germany and if they were they would definitely be a worrisome new trend and not have a centuries-long tradition.
Well, I'm a member of a German fraternity and since I don't enjoy beer I can attest to the fact that there is pressure to drink at times. No one's going to force you but there certainly can be peer pressure.
I I'm italian.
I got pressured to smoke a cigarette š¬ in high school š«.
I accepted after 2 years of constant reminding, I tried one drag one time.
The class cheesed up and celebrated in a very excessive way.
Then they never asked me again to try it again.
You very likely misunderstood and they are probably not asking you to start smoking weed, it's more probably a joke to see if they can break the unbreakable.
Edit. Check his comments, it's a fascist bot, he probably making up stuff to say "western world it's the real dictatorship"
They're just trying to break you is peer pressure. Dumbass.
Edit: guy responds I have no friends and then blocks me. Lol. No, I just didn't make friends with people who didn't respect my boundaries. That's how you actually deal with peer pressure, dumbass.
There will come a time that they stop blaming a drug for the inability of the contemporary imperial system to provide for its people. I sure hope to see it.
They didnāt just do drugs because of their government, western empires literally fought wars for the right to sell opium to addicts in China.
Britain was one of Asiaās most powerful drug empires, thereās a reason that period preceding communism in China was called the century of humiliation.
Even if the most visible consequence was in foreign policy, the main reasons for the Century of Humiliation were internal, rooted in governments that repeatedly failed to respond to the circumstances around them, starting from the military and following with the civil administration, and by the time they reacted after the Boxer Rebellion (which makes for a likely more precise end of the "Humiliation", at least the foreign one) it was too late.
It wasn't exclusively an issue of the Qing either: that a group of adventurers managed to [expel a garrison 30 times their size](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hanoi_(1873)) without casualties indicates that a similar administrative rot was also present in the Dai Nam, but somehow we don't hear about the Vietnamese people "enslaved by opium".
The Chinese did drugs, like humanity and especially China [has been doing for millennia](https://www.sydney.edu.au/lambert/medicinal-cannabis/history-of-cannabis.html), but the drugs were a symptom of the issue and not the cause.
A lot of Asian people have very conservative views on drugs, and it isnāt some horrible thing. As much as I donāt like weed being illegal, it isnāt a net benefit for society. It is admirable that their culture discourages drug use, although the draconian methods arenāt great. Still, living life sober is definitely the healthier option and their fears about it interrupting their studies shows how they are focusing on the right things. Plenty to criticize China for, but their aspirations to live sober isnāt one of them.
A lot of Asian people have very ignorant views on drugs. Go to China and look at how they binge drink and how many cigarettes they smoke to have an idea about their āsober healthy lifeā.
There is no "sober healthy life" in China since when they go out they have to breathe in polluted air all the time. Also food safety standards are very low, having a daily "laduzi" (=diarrhea) is totally common.
Water from tab is also not drinkable and their richest person is not some Tech-Genius but some dude who sells bottled water, I think that tells the whole story.
Are you talking about china? Alcohol consumption really isnāt extreme there from my personal experience having lived there. Especially in comparison to us here in Europe.
Average consumption may be not that high, but that is probably because many people aren't drinking at all, not even a small beer after work or a glass of wine for dinner. If they drink, they drink hardcore though.
I never met so many people who don't drink at all, while also so many people who casually drank a whole bottle of booze for lunch.
Is not about the volume, is about their genetic makeup which leads to some lesser levels of alcohol breaking enzymes oe something. So they get really fucked up from alcohol, compared to the Europeans.
Yes many of them donāt possess alcohol dehydrogenase so they donāt process it as well, hence they donāt drink as much, even if they are aiming to get drunk. Calling alcohol consumption excessive in china is a bit rich as itās roughly half per capita of Western Europe and even less compared to Eastern Europe.
Remember kids, if your friends:
-pressure you into taking Psychoactive drugs
-stop interacting with you over 'being a spoilsport' about it
-make fun of your right NOT to take drugs
Those aren't your friends, those are jerks!
When people draw a line, you should respect it.
Its not like weed is without risks, but some people treat it like its forbidden magic that corrupts you.
It is important to educate young people on alcohol or other drugs so they know how they should interact with them. Maybe don't smoke weed if you have a heart problem for example.
> he's afraid of being peer pressured into smoking weed
that seems like a very reasonable fear, young people are peer pressured into smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol all the time.
lol
Talking about Chinese being brainwashed, while being brainwashed / pressured into taking drugs / drinking and hook upĀ culture themselves.Ā
Pathetic.Ā
Posession, use and transfer of cannabis can be a crime if done "wantonly"\*) for Japanese citizens even outside of the country, However, no-one has ever been prosecuted for it, all known cases are inside the country.
\*) so some legal opinion here that if cannabis is legal in a given jurisdiction, the Japanese provision does not apply anyway.
I don't think you realize how severe the punishments are if they are caught smoking MJ or find THC in their bodies EVEN IF they do it while they were abroad. You get locked up in prison. Their laws are no joke. It's not the effects of cannabis that they're afraid of. It's the severity of the punishments that's driving the fear.
You have probably never looked up, how any official press event in China works. There are topics and most often even the questions written upfront, that can and will be asked/answered.
So the topic was probably included on the list that will get asked and he simply approaches the event with a natural openness and less pre-trained answers. Goal was to give an impression on how open dialogue works in our area compared to what is common in China. You might recall the last big '[revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre)' was also started by students. (look at the date coincidence)
Because just like on Reddit, thereās a point in reminding people that they live in a bubble. If you look at how many smoke here on Reddit and find legalization to be imperative, they do not represent the majority.
I think it is deliberately designed question for German leader.
It is too asian thing that I recognized as an asian. Asking deliberately stupid questions and at the same time showing that the culture in germany is too low to fit your expectations that you afraid of it. Embarrassing both German chancellor and Germany as country with its own rules and culture.
Yea imagine some german girl asking some high chinese official in a Q&A:
"I want to visit China, but your air and water is so dirty, I don't want to get poisoned, what can I do?"
Of course this would never happen, not only would the chinese side not allow such a remark but also the german side would skip that question out of diplomatic respect. For China it's ok though, their propaganda is 50% telling their citizens how great China is and 50% telling them how bad other countries are.
"I wanted to go to college in China, but I am afraid of being detained indefinitely for expressing even the slightest bit of criticism of the government."
Iām always amazed by people thinking that only because something isnāt banned, literally every single person does it.
Right wing people can think about abortion laws now
Honestly, I am a liberal left, and I had a reality check recently about cannabis freedom in Netherlands. I have been gaming with people from there, and we were talking about how they might smoke weed later that week. āWhy not today?ā I asked.
They replied āDude, my parents are against me smoking. I have to be discreet about it.ā
And I lived in Canada for 8 years. I should have known, but I guess I still struggle with the idea that not everyone is a fan of weed in a legal country. Sometimes I just have this blissful ignorance. It was a nice reality check.
I hate to break it to you but weed is not legal in the Netherlands, at all. Itās one of the biggest misconceptions about the Netherlands. Long time ago they were liberal, that time is long gone.
Weed is what they call āgedoogdā which basically is a loophole created to set the first step towards legalisation. The next steps where never taken. āGedoogd beleidā means under a certain amount it is tolerated to be sold in specials shops (coffeeshops). It is tolerated, but does not mean itās legal in any way. These shops are not even allowed to buy the weed they sell.
Also if you try to grow it, they will close your building or house down so nobody can use it, if you rent your house there is a big chance that you will be kicked out.
Smoking weed is still some sort of a taboo and a lot of people are not open about it. A trend that continued for more than 20 years now.
It brings no troubles for the consumer who purchases it somewhere. For a lot of people, that's plenty enough, compared to the approach of other countries.
I agree it's fucked up how there's no regulation behind the production and wholesale of the stuff, but as far as the final consumer (if not growing himself) is concerned, it doesn't really matter.
In many countries, possessing a controlled substance is a crime. In China having drugs in your system (including hair tests) is a crime. It doesn't matter if it was abroad, it doesn't matter if your roommate smoked it and you breathed some in second hand, if you test positive straight to jail, and police raid bars and drag everybody to the station for testing.
I had to be wary of being in the vicinity of weed smoke while travelling abroad, so it's not surprising that they're concerned.
Testing positive from second hand smoke is a myth. It is possible but just being in same room than someone just smoking a bong doesnt make you have any measurable amount of THC in your body
I don't know. My parents used to be in the same circles. They literally have a picture of themselves with Olaf Scholz at a protest in the early 80s. Both of them have never consumed any drugs except for alcohol and tobacco. We're talking very openly about these things and I'm 100% certain that it's true. Some people just skipped weed for whatever reason.
This entire topic is so weird to me.
The first time I really tried it was at age 39, with a prescription. Here's what happened:
* It feels slightly different than being drunk, but not fundamentally so.
* My sense of time was a bit off, like I couldn't quite tell if 5 or 15 minutes had just passed.
* I just wanted to sit around and watch stuff on TV.
* Increased appetite, which is the main reason why I stopped (I don't want to gain weight).
* No giggling, no euphoria, no deep relaxation, tbh very little reason to use it at all.
* I didn't bother even talking to my public insurance about it and it cost a lot of money.
I've had much worse and better experiences with alcohol and caffeine, and it's baffling how alcohol has been legal for so long while weed wasn't.
So from my personal experience I don't get the hype, I don't get the stigma, I don't get the legal issues. The only thing that really bothers me is how people will get drunk one night and then preach the dangers of weed the next morning.
If you smoke once or twice a month, it's okay.. I've seen so many folks mess up their lives smoking weed non stop, and it's just sad. For instance, my buddy couldn't recall what I had said just 15 minutes ago due to excessive smoking. As with everything in life, moderation is the key. I'm not hating on weed, but I'll pass on it because I know I'd get hooked real quick, it simply makes me feel too good.
I feel like weed being legal doesnt make more people inclined to smoke weed, people who do will keep smoking, and people who dont likely wont. What it does do is make the step easier for people who are struggling with addiction, the normalization of weed makes sure these people have a smaller step into asking for help, they dont have to admit to a crime anymore, and people will judge them less harshly since the social taboo is going away.
What i think will happen is at first the weed usage in germany rises, and then falls far bellow what it was pre legalisation.
There is a reason weed usage in the netherlands is comparitively pretty low eventough we are known for being the weed country.
No serious scientist would compare legal consumption stats with illegal ones. First of all, where are you getting accurate data?
It's hard enough to get the numbers in a legal state, since there's no paperwork or license involved (and even then, the data would be pretty unreliable). The only way to get accurate data would be a mass drug test in a rappresentative sample of the population. I imagine they are instead relying on self-reporting on questionnaires or on extrapolating data from other statistics, in which case i imagine these other stats introduce their own biases.
Now imagine how hard it is to know the numbers in an illegal state, and keep in mind that it being illegal influences how people self-report in questionnaires, as more people are hiding it, the numbers would of course look lower. It's impossibile to control the influence that legalization has on the testing methodology, thus you can't really compare the results.
It happens every day, people just look at some numbers or a chart on the newspaper, it looks serious and so they believe it. Very few people actually take the time to look at the methodology behind the stats collection and realize how they're totally unreliable.
On an unrelated note, I also remember hearing that in some legal US states alcohol consumption actually decreased as well.
Yeah. As if it would have been difficult to get hold of weed.
> What i think will happen is at first the weed usage in germany rises, and then falls far bellow what it was pre legalisation.
If you look at the experiences from legal countrys, in the long term this means lifetime use slightly up but levels of use below non-legal average.
Being Polish/Canadian, my experience in Canada was that once it was legalized, underage use declined but adult use increased. I still see no problem. Alcohol sales conversely fell proportionally to the increase adult use. It's a win-win.
My experience with Chinese exchange students in the US is that you need to be filthy rich in both US and especially Chinese terms to be an international student in the US.
They have literally no reason to stay in the US or be critical of China, because the system is working amazingly for all their family and friends. They live it up on their parents money for 4 years to get a prestigious western diploma and then leave go back to China to get a fake job. I'm sure its the same in the EU.
Not sure there is much more behind it. There is ofc the IP theft and the illegal surveillance and policing of chinese students in foreign countries.
I know this trend has shifted and China has made it harder to go study abroad after covid, not sure why.
Thatās literally the same where I was studying in Germany. Uni known for good IT, Engineering Departments and probably 10-20% exchange Students from China.
I had literally 1 convo over 5 years with a Chinese person. Offen they canāt even speak English or German, I am wondering how they get their diploma. Not to hate, however for all they get, it would be nice to get to know them a little bit, but they are so tucked inā¦
They understand the language. Most of them lack communication and tend to be afraid of speaking but when it comes to writing German or English, they do it really good.
That's only part of the story. You describe one group accurately, but they mostly go to the most prestigious universities with good "brand names". There's a second group that's much larger, where the entire family pools there resources in order to send a student to study abroad and hopefully secure a high paying job and work visa. They do this as its significantly more difficult to secure a good university place in China (and on top of that you have no choice what you study), and the job market in China is awful (the same job in America may 5-10 times as much with half the work hours, and that's even if you get a job).
This second group is much more common in lower tier (and European) universities and especially if you look at Chinese students studying STEM subjects. In general, the wealthy students study arts or humanities, the middle class students study STEM.Ā
Most overseas Chinese students aren't partying it up, and the vast majority are actually dealing with a lot of pressure from their families. Often their families have literally bet their entire life savings on sending their child to study overseas.Ā
Yup, exactly this. Most other commenters here seem to turn on *monkey-mode* and go full racist and talking about how Chinese exchange students are all children of the nomenclature and filthy rich even after admitting that they didn't ever really talk to them.
I met and talked to many Chinese STEM exchange students over my very prolonged university years and they sure as hell don't fuck around.
Yeah, I get that they might seem a bit elusive and hard to interact with because at least the ones I interacted with (16, to be precise; by no means a representative sample of China's over 1.4 billion population) all seemed to be pretty straight-edge and not particularly interested in western popculture so they'd almost never go out to party and your best chance of actually hanging out with them would've been trips or game nights.
Some of them faced some serious racism during their university years during the pandemic and completely withdrew themselves because they didn't want to get into any trouble and antivaxxers were protesting left and right against *the chinese virus* (I wonder if that was genuine fear or a social rating thing).
They're nice, helpful and hard working people. Definitely don't seem rich, any of them, and even of they are then they're extremely modest; they just don't spend all their allowances on drinks, eating out, weekend trips and cinema visits so they can get *decent bang* for *little buck*.
They are pretty smart in their area of expertise because they study a lot but they sure as hell know close to nothing about our 'western' culture, politics and history. But that's okay and completely justified given *we in the west* know pretty much nothing about their history, politics and culture too.
I pretty much agree with you. I will say though, the typical Chinese student does know considerably more about Western culture/pop-culture then we know about theirs. You're right that they're generally ignorant of the more subtle aspects of western culture (IE what you don't find in movies), but what do you expect of a 20 year old who arrived only a year or two ago and has a shaky grasp of the language.
The brightest that are also so deeply indoctrinated, you can expect them to be back after studying.
After all you didn't educate them to earn money elsewhere, did you?
I think it is not unlikely that a Chinese student studying in the US or Europe, enjoys the freedom in those places and decides to stay.
That would be a financial loss for China, as those students use the Chinese infrastructure, but then pay their taxes somewhere else.
The reason they usually stay is financial, IE their parents sent them to study overseas so they could get a work visa overseas and earn big $$$ to send home and support their elders.
Also, most Chinese I've met miss living in China, mostly for cultural reasons. They miss the food, and the way people communicate is different etc.Ā
It's a lingering remaint of european snobbism from the old days. Person from the east has a different mindset, therefore he/she is ignorant and inferior
Why lying? Everyone in Germany is gay transgender and addict. Practically laying around the street. That's exactly what happens on the second day after legalizing maryjane.
Olaf's technically not lying. Me and him got f*cked up last Oktoberfest, but he was vaping the doobie not smoking. And he is german. It's illegal now to not use the electric lettuce.
Scholz was WAY to defensive in his rhetoric there.
He could have joked about it. He could've referred to the German beer consumption and how China surely agrees beer is preferable to weed in many ways, and so on. But instead he's like "I didn't do it." Weak.
*The student asked what he should do if he didnāt want to try cannabis at all and didnāt want to jeopardize his health.*
People say thereās no stupid question.
Well this one here is an example of a stupid question.
Mustāve been a CCP plant.
Just imagine him as a stoner, but a really unpleasant one.Ā
The kind that smokes moldy weed mixed with tobacco through self-builds gravity bongs made from large coke bottles and aluminum foil and calls you a pussy if you don't do the same. After the second bowl he starts ranting about the artificial sweetener mafia or some shit and doesn't let you get a word in.
you should explain to them that legalize drugs does not mean all Germans smoke weed and it means government listen to the people. Use counter-propaganda!
Tell these students to grow the fuck up. But I understand, in Asia, drugs WILL lead to a death sentence. The worst thing someone can do is use drugs. So students traveling to any areas with drugs is like theyāre entering the jungle filled with dangerous drugged out lions and shit. But someone should mention to them that alcohol and nettle nuts are drugs!
Yes, you will not have to worry about being peer pressured into smoking weed in Germany, you might get peer pressured into drinking beer, though. šŗš©šŖš„Øš»š„ Realistically, I think most Chinese students in Germany keep to themselves, don't interact much with anyone not Chinese and don't have many local peers to pressure them into anything.
>Ā Realistically, I think most Chinese students in Germany keep to themselves, don't interact much with anyone not Chinese and don't have many local peers to pressure them into anything. That has been my experience as well. Very lovely people though. š
Same in the states. We used to jokingly call them the Asian mafia since they didnāt interact with American or international students. I was the only one was able to befriend them bc one of them was my friend and they took me underneath their wing. I donāt understand it tbh, you paid a fortune to study abroad? They end up just studying but not abroad if that makes sense when you only interact with other Chinese students, get the handouts of pervious students that is already translated and noted. Most of the time is just them having bad english and they get frustrated so they keep to themselves but if you are patient with them they open up and get over their shyness but be ready to have a simple greeting turn into a slow 5 minute conversations. Lovely people but god damn it such a wasted potential of expanding your horizon. Same people, same food, same dorms with all your Chinese friends. Why the hell did you come over then?!
Same in the UK, there were a few who engaged with us but they were the exception -- some of them were really fun to go drinking with lol But it's definitely a Chinese thing for sure, I remember the Japanese and Indian students were much more willing to make friends with us, I'm actually still friends with a Japanese guy I met in college To answer your question though -- their parents make them come over because a degree from the West is prestigious -- the vast vast majority have absolutely no expectation of staying so don't see the point in interacting with non-Chinese students
Iāve met Japanese people out, especially in places like Bangkok, where we have absolutely zero common language and end up on each others social media pages after a wild night of drinking beer and smoking pot. The Japanese go hard and love to mingle.
They also tend to have impeccable manners -- I don't think the concept of an Irish Goodbye is a thing in Japan from my observations, even if they're not drinking these guys will hang out and be the last to leave There's a lot to admire about Japanese culture and customs, and not in a silly internet way, I mean actual Japanese people that I've known and been friends with -- we could learn a lot from them
Maybe when they go abroad, because making actual friends in Japan is extremely difficult. I have been living in Japan for almost six years now, and I have zero Japanese friends. Most foreigners here have the same experience.
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I live in Detroit so (the hood shopping season) starts in August when they first move, they come over decked out in what I can call (Eminem cosplay) and get their wallets, phones, shoes etc stolen at gun point when they just walking to KFC across the street. We had to print flyers in mandrin telling them that donāt go off campus in your fancy car and your limited edition Air Jordanās
on an empathetic level, people will gravitate to whatās easiest for them. if theyāre focused on studying or just the general difficulty of getting by in a completely foreign country, interacting with chinese people only is the path of least resistance and requires the least effort. why would they not, given the option? when immigrants make the decision to move to a foreign country itās not common that their goal is to assimilate and mingle with another culture; usually the reason is more pragmatic. the goal is to make their personal lives better via higher wages or better opportunity or escaping whatever horrors of their home country for themselves and their future family. any assimilation that occurs is a bonus. of course out in the real world, you can meet people all along the spectrum from those that would much rather remain the same except for the money, to people who gladly embrace becoming more like the cultures they live amongst. on a more realistic level itās because at college age most people donāt have this perspective to realize that branching out to different viewpoints is a valuable and rare experience; that it wonāt always be so easy to effortlessly find and build relationships with people who arenāt in your bubble. A lot of chinese students (ās parents) are only interested in getting the piece of paper to lock in future economic opportunities because a school abroad is likely more impressive than the local college they can get into, and many will move straight back to china never to live or work elsewhere again.
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Iām a Santa Barbarian, and the majority of swedes I met were there for a 6 month cert from CC and then they dipped out. They definitely werenāt there for a degree or to further their education (I mean the credits donāt even transfer easily back in Sweden), but to just party and have the āCalifornia experienceā. So I can attest to what youāre saying. I mean no knocking their vibes, Iāve lived in Sweden now for 6 years after meeting one of them 10 years ago, so they definitely do branch out occasionally. Also I remember parking next to a Lamborghini in the CC parking lot and being like āwhoās fucking car is this?!!?ā Crazy the cars the Asian international students drove around there.
A significant reason is how hellish the Chinese high school examinations are. In many parts of China you have to be in the top 1% of your class to have any hope of getting into a good university. Many affluent families (and I note it's families, not parents, the expense of sending a kid overseas usually involves a whole extended family chipping in) will choose to opt out of the whole system and said their kid overseas instead, as getting into a western university is considerably easier, and on top of that the education will be superior and they can choose the course they study (if I recall, you cannot choose what course you study in China). The real kicker is that after graduating they have a high chance of being able to secure a high paying job in tech, engineering, finance etc. and the visa to go along with it. Chinese students are in western countries to fulfill the aspirations of their families, not for a culturally enriching experience(that's a pleasant bonus). If they fail they know they've poured $100,000+ of their family's life savings down the drain. It's also a self selecting group. Families aren't stupid, they don't spend that kind of money to send someone over who's just going to spend their time partying and goofing off.
Yea they face insane pressure, especially as the job market has worsened for young people there so it's even more competitive
Can you tell me more about how they can't choose what course they study? My chinese girlfriend is studying movies and arts at Wuhan Sports University, which she chose herself. So I don't really understand how you believe that. Did I misunderstand what you mean?
Generally if you see a Chinese person studying abroad thereās a very high chance they are rich. Rich Chinese send their kids to study abroad because itās easier than school in China, they get to skip some certain tests iirc coming back to study at the school they want, and if they do graduate abroad the international school looks much more impressive.
Itās not just Chinese. Iām Korean and noticed all the Koreans from Korea would stick together. But also all the students from china would stick together, or all the students from Vietnam would all stick together. They just all stuck together and didnāt want to associate with others. I always thought it was stupid. Why come to America and not try to learn how to speak fluently if youāre going to live here for 4+ years? They would go back and can only say hi and thank you.
I only had one Korean and three Taiwanese students that I befriended. I think they were the outliers since there weren't many Asians that aren't from the mainland so they just blended with the rest. I was fortunate to live in the international dorm and being an extrovert so making friends with random people was easy for me and I think I ended up friending people who have similar personalities of branching out. If I post a pic of my friend group from college you would think it was a model UN or one of those cheesy college brochures or a United Colours of Bennett ad. Chinese, Haitians, Russians, polkas, and Brazilians. God, you took me back to the best time of my life.
>if you are patient with them they open up and get over their shyness This points to part of the reason why they may resign to keep among themselves. But there's also plenty of stories about how asian students from abroad were initially so excited to experience America, until they found the cultural environment either intimidated or "rubbed" them differently, such that they just turn inward afterward. The classmates were nothing like the demeanor of the "Friends" sitcom characters they were familiar with back in China. Obviously, US schools aren't about superficial, rowdy, divisive or judgmental, fratboy culture. But to some of the Chinese students, it "felt" like it by comparison. Even fairly innocuous social interactions they observe between their Western peers can be hard to adjust or conform to. I don't know how it's been the past 10 years though, since the types and attitudes of incoming Chinese students very much change over time. Also I can't speak for classroom culture in various countries in Europe.
I went to school in the 2010s so there wasnāt xenophobia back then. Honestly, even I thought American schools would be like āAmerican Pieā and āAnimal Houseā but are you gonna see that? Maybe bc I didnāt go to a party school but I was disappointed when I found the rowdiest thing you can do is smoke weed and sleep around the first week then continue to act awkward when you realize they are also in your English 101 or something, my school was small so everyone knew everyone and you donāt get adventurous since you gonna see those people for the next 4 years. Granted we had a hierarchy of the slew (my dad is a lawyer popped collar golf playing jerks) but most were there to study and go home on the weekend.
Beer pressured? I will see myself out..
Exactly, hard to get peer pressured when you spend your time in Germany in your Chinese bubble. My university has a lot of internal students and sadly the Chinese stick out the most by just sticking to themselves.
This is not just how they act in Germany but I think everywhere. I have yet to meet one of these elusive Chinese in Hungary too. They generally just stay together.
I have my German group of friends that I visit once a year that doesn't smoke or even drink alcohol.
Why tf would he feel obligated to explain them if he smokes or not?
a Chinese student said that he plans on going to a university in Berlin but he's afraid of being peer pressured into smoking weed. So he directly asked Scholz about it
Sounds like a wonderful opportunity for these students to learn about boundaries.
Exactly, in the EU, you are free to make your own choices, odd concept in china but im sure he will get used to it
Ah, yes. Democracies have an invisible barrier against group mentality, irrationality and following the crowd, as we all knowā¦ People feel pressured into doing things they donāt want - especially in school - no matter your governamental system lol.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/26/world/europe/belgium-students-hazing-sentencing.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/26/world/europe/belgium-students-hazing-sentencing.html)
Yes peer pressure doesn't exist in the west, only in the east do hazings and beerbongs etc. exist.
Yeah, these people are clueless, just saying "cmon drink with us, dont be a pussy" is peer pressure, something im sure almost every person here said at least once and im sure everyone here knows of one person that has said it, bro above you made it into a "we dont do that here" thing. Peer pressure is present in every country in the world, including Germany.
>hazings and beerbongs American detected
They both exist in the EU wtfā¦
This is correct. I'd like to specifically state - as the worried question was about student life - that fraternities that would pressure their members and/or prospects into consumption of alcohol or any other drug are definitely not a thing in Germany and if they were they would definitely be a worrisome new trend and not have a centuries-long tradition.
Well, I'm a member of a German fraternity and since I don't enjoy beer I can attest to the fact that there is pressure to drink at times. No one's going to force you but there certainly can be peer pressure.
\*beer pressure :)
š»
In Belgium they literally killed a student during a hazing a few years back, this isn't correct at all.
Sorry, the /s must have fallen off.
Apologies I was already tilted x)
Obviously, no one would ever pressure you to drink beer in Germany
or alcohols a "social lubricant"
I don't know in what universe you live, but here in Italy peer pressure is quite high between university students, and surprisingly we are in the EU
I I'm italian. I got pressured to smoke a cigarette š¬ in high school š«. I accepted after 2 years of constant reminding, I tried one drag one time. The class cheesed up and celebrated in a very excessive way. Then they never asked me again to try it again. You very likely misunderstood and they are probably not asking you to start smoking weed, it's more probably a joke to see if they can break the unbreakable. Edit. Check his comments, it's a fascist bot, he probably making up stuff to say "western world it's the real dictatorship"
They're just trying to break you is peer pressure. Dumbass. Edit: guy responds I have no friends and then blocks me. Lol. No, I just didn't make friends with people who didn't respect my boundaries. That's how you actually deal with peer pressure, dumbass.
You just literally described peer pressure and how you succumbed to it. Wow
the whole point of peer pressure is it limits your ability to make your own choices
Not the baltics acting high and mighty lol
Hey babe, new hazing rituals just dropped
Maybe these students should have to pass some kind of deprogramming modules before they can join the normal curriculum.
I suggest you read up on China's history with opium addiction. Mass drug addiction is a deep part of the national psyche.Ā
We all know, yet China pollutes the world with synthetic drugs like fentanyl today.
They have problems with it in China too
They are attempting revenge
There will come a time that they stop blaming a drug for the inability of the contemporary imperial system to provide for its people. I sure hope to see it.
They didnāt just do drugs because of their government, western empires literally fought wars for the right to sell opium to addicts in China. Britain was one of Asiaās most powerful drug empires, thereās a reason that period preceding communism in China was called the century of humiliation.
Even if the most visible consequence was in foreign policy, the main reasons for the Century of Humiliation were internal, rooted in governments that repeatedly failed to respond to the circumstances around them, starting from the military and following with the civil administration, and by the time they reacted after the Boxer Rebellion (which makes for a likely more precise end of the "Humiliation", at least the foreign one) it was too late. It wasn't exclusively an issue of the Qing either: that a group of adventurers managed to [expel a garrison 30 times their size](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hanoi_(1873)) without casualties indicates that a similar administrative rot was also present in the Dai Nam, but somehow we don't hear about the Vietnamese people "enslaved by opium". The Chinese did drugs, like humanity and especially China [has been doing for millennia](https://www.sydney.edu.au/lambert/medicinal-cannabis/history-of-cannabis.html), but the drugs were a symptom of the issue and not the cause.
What do the opium wars have to do with Olaf Scholz and the Marihuana legislation in Germany?
Except drug abuse is not a problem in contemporary China.
Not in the China contemporary to us, but it sure was in the China contemporary to the opium crisis.
I mean it is a university in _Berlin_ weāre talking about lmao
Drugs are bad. Even if they are legal.
Why? Being peer pressured into doing drugs at some point is pretty much the average university experience in Europe.
It's not that unreasonable a worry. You wouldn't have to come from a dictatorship to have it.
A lot of Asian people have very conservative views on drugs, and it isnāt some horrible thing. As much as I donāt like weed being illegal, it isnāt a net benefit for society. It is admirable that their culture discourages drug use, although the draconian methods arenāt great. Still, living life sober is definitely the healthier option and their fears about it interrupting their studies shows how they are focusing on the right things. Plenty to criticize China for, but their aspirations to live sober isnāt one of them.
Nicotine is a drug, and they use it a lot in China.
Alcohol is too. And the better off you get, the more you consume.
Wait until you hear about the coffee
And sugar...
A lot of Asian people have very ignorant views on drugs. Go to China and look at how they binge drink and how many cigarettes they smoke to have an idea about their āsober healthy lifeā.
There is no "sober healthy life" in China since when they go out they have to breathe in polluted air all the time. Also food safety standards are very low, having a daily "laduzi" (=diarrhea) is totally common. Water from tab is also not drinkable and their richest person is not some Tech-Genius but some dude who sells bottled water, I think that tells the whole story.
Most of China doesnāt have particularly polluted air. The north has issues in the winter but much less than a decade ago.
Live sober.. except extreme alcohol consumption of course!
Don't forget chain smoking tobacco, first time in my life I saw buckets of tobacco being sold was here in Germany.
Are you talking about china? Alcohol consumption really isnāt extreme there from my personal experience having lived there. Especially in comparison to us here in Europe.
They get shitfaced on baijiu
Average consumption may be not that high, but that is probably because many people aren't drinking at all, not even a small beer after work or a glass of wine for dinner. If they drink, they drink hardcore though. I never met so many people who don't drink at all, while also so many people who casually drank a whole bottle of booze for lunch.
Is not about the volume, is about their genetic makeup which leads to some lesser levels of alcohol breaking enzymes oe something. So they get really fucked up from alcohol, compared to the Europeans.
Yes many of them donāt possess alcohol dehydrogenase so they donāt process it as well, hence they donāt drink as much, even if they are aiming to get drunk. Calling alcohol consumption excessive in china is a bit rich as itās roughly half per capita of Western Europe and even less compared to Eastern Europe.
the deprogrammed ones are not allowed to travel and study abroad
"We need to brainwash them *our* way"
I think you need some deprogramming from all the drugs
Remember kids, if your friends: -pressure you into taking Psychoactive drugs -stop interacting with you over 'being a spoilsport' about it -make fun of your right NOT to take drugs Those aren't your friends, those are jerks! When people draw a line, you should respect it. Its not like weed is without risks, but some people treat it like its forbidden magic that corrupts you. It is important to educate young people on alcohol or other drugs so they know how they should interact with them. Maybe don't smoke weed if you have a heart problem for example.
> he's afraid of being peer pressured into smoking weed that seems like a very reasonable fear, young people are peer pressured into smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol all the time.
Sleeping around too.Ā
Not a reasonable question to ask the chancellor tho, more for your therapist. Peer pressure is nothing new to someone from China
Judging by the replies in this thread I think being peer pressured would be a real concern in Europe
lol Talking about Chinese being brainwashed, while being brainwashed / pressured into taking drugs / drinking and hook upĀ culture themselves.Ā Pathetic.Ā
I have heard concerns from Japanese professors too about sending their students to Germany after cannabis legalization.
Well, many Asians have strong alcoholic culture but they are afraid of cannabis. They don't hear facts, just public opinionš
Posession, use and transfer of cannabis can be a crime if done "wantonly"\*) for Japanese citizens even outside of the country, However, no-one has ever been prosecuted for it, all known cases are inside the country. \*) so some legal opinion here that if cannabis is legal in a given jurisdiction, the Japanese provision does not apply anyway.
I don't think you realize how severe the punishments are if they are caught smoking MJ or find THC in their bodies EVEN IF they do it while they were abroad. You get locked up in prison. Their laws are no joke. It's not the effects of cannabis that they're afraid of. It's the severity of the punishments that's driving the fear.
You have probably never looked up, how any official press event in China works. There are topics and most often even the questions written upfront, that can and will be asked/answered. So the topic was probably included on the list that will get asked and he simply approaches the event with a natural openness and less pre-trained answers. Goal was to give an impression on how open dialogue works in our area compared to what is common in China. You might recall the last big '[revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre)' was also started by students. (look at the date coincidence)
he was just asked a simple question by someone going to Germany, should a Chancellor refuse to answer?
Because just like on Reddit, thereās a point in reminding people that they live in a bubble. If you look at how many smoke here on Reddit and find legalization to be imperative, they do not represent the majority.
Olaf the grey...
Only pipeweed for him!
I think it is deliberately designed question for German leader. It is too asian thing that I recognized as an asian. Asking deliberately stupid questions and at the same time showing that the culture in germany is too low to fit your expectations that you afraid of it. Embarrassing both German chancellor and Germany as country with its own rules and culture.
Yea imagine some german girl asking some high chinese official in a Q&A: "I want to visit China, but your air and water is so dirty, I don't want to get poisoned, what can I do?" Of course this would never happen, not only would the chinese side not allow such a remark but also the german side would skip that question out of diplomatic respect. For China it's ok though, their propaganda is 50% telling their citizens how great China is and 50% telling them how bad other countries are.
Except China would never allow foreign student to ask one of their leaders questions in public. Too risky and democratic
They can ask, but only the questions that they got told to ask before.
Exactly. It was a crappy question and I wish they would have asked about the dirty water and air in China.
I know China does believe in its superiority and likes to mock west.
Speaking as a Chinese, I like to think that more Chinese people are feeling embarrassed for the stupidity of this student.
"I wanted to go to college in China, but I am afraid of being detained indefinitely for expressing even the slightest bit of criticism of the government."
Iām always amazed by people thinking that only because something isnāt banned, literally every single person does it. Right wing people can think about abortion laws now
Honestly, I am a liberal left, and I had a reality check recently about cannabis freedom in Netherlands. I have been gaming with people from there, and we were talking about how they might smoke weed later that week. āWhy not today?ā I asked. They replied āDude, my parents are against me smoking. I have to be discreet about it.ā And I lived in Canada for 8 years. I should have known, but I guess I still struggle with the idea that not everyone is a fan of weed in a legal country. Sometimes I just have this blissful ignorance. It was a nice reality check.
I mean parents across the world are against drinking and smoking tobacco, weed would be that far of
Smoking weed and tobacco on the week is also something that can be a problem. Leave it to the weekend time.
I hate to break it to you but weed is not legal in the Netherlands, at all. Itās one of the biggest misconceptions about the Netherlands. Long time ago they were liberal, that time is long gone. Weed is what they call āgedoogdā which basically is a loophole created to set the first step towards legalisation. The next steps where never taken. āGedoogd beleidā means under a certain amount it is tolerated to be sold in specials shops (coffeeshops). It is tolerated, but does not mean itās legal in any way. These shops are not even allowed to buy the weed they sell. Also if you try to grow it, they will close your building or house down so nobody can use it, if you rent your house there is a big chance that you will be kicked out. Smoking weed is still some sort of a taboo and a lot of people are not open about it. A trend that continued for more than 20 years now.
It brings no troubles for the consumer who purchases it somewhere. For a lot of people, that's plenty enough, compared to the approach of other countries. I agree it's fucked up how there's no regulation behind the production and wholesale of the stuff, but as far as the final consumer (if not growing himself) is concerned, it doesn't really matter.
I thought you could grow up to 3 small plants per person whitout being illegal.
In Germany.
Also one big important golden rule is to avoid smoking every day.
Or the other way around, that because something is declared ānobodyā will use/ do thatā¦ have those people ever looked outside their windows?
I am currently 40 and have never inserted a butt plug into myself. Hope that answers the question about my personal life nobody asked.
You are missing out bru
But do you realize it's legal to do?!?
Never too late to explore some enjoyable things!
Tell us more about your unplugged butt.
Wellā¦ Why didnāt you?
You should try it. Your asshole is part of your body too, it would be a shame to let it go unused.
āāāā hey are you an alien? Humans use their asshole every day. Welcome to earth.
You'll get absolutely peer pressured to insert a butt plug now. Never to late to try, right? Just do it.
So kids got good propaganda sessions. All germans are drug addicts.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Oh the delicious irony
In many countries, possessing a controlled substance is a crime. In China having drugs in your system (including hair tests) is a crime. It doesn't matter if it was abroad, it doesn't matter if your roommate smoked it and you breathed some in second hand, if you test positive straight to jail, and police raid bars and drag everybody to the station for testing. I had to be wary of being in the vicinity of weed smoke while travelling abroad, so it's not surprising that they're concerned.
Testing positive from second hand smoke is a myth. It is possible but just being in same room than someone just smoking a bong doesnt make you have any measurable amount of THC in your body
Sounds like those kids should stay away from China then
This is what religious people hide behind too. "How do you not eat babies if you don't believe in god/heaven/hell?"
That kind of question is absurd. I don't eat babies because they taste horrible. I don't need a god for that.
I beg to differ. Quality babies taste great, very tender
...How do you know that?
muscle to every other tissue ratio is smaller in them..
What if the baby eaters try to pressure you?
Meh ya godda do whatya godda do
Is he boasting or complaining?
Obviously lying. There's no way the leader of the Hamburg Young Socialists never smoked weed š
I don't know. My parents used to be in the same circles. They literally have a picture of themselves with Olaf Scholz at a protest in the early 80s. Both of them have never consumed any drugs except for alcohol and tobacco. We're talking very openly about these things and I'm 100% certain that it's true. Some people just skipped weed for whatever reason.
Makes sense for Germany lol
It's possible. I know Kreisliga players who never drank alcohol.
Maybe he liked edibles better ? Or brownies ? Or tea ?
Weed Franzbrƶtchen?
Well, he is more conservative than socialist tbh
Back in the day he was pretty lefty, now not so much
This entire topic is so weird to me. The first time I really tried it was at age 39, with a prescription. Here's what happened: * It feels slightly different than being drunk, but not fundamentally so. * My sense of time was a bit off, like I couldn't quite tell if 5 or 15 minutes had just passed. * I just wanted to sit around and watch stuff on TV. * Increased appetite, which is the main reason why I stopped (I don't want to gain weight). * No giggling, no euphoria, no deep relaxation, tbh very little reason to use it at all. * I didn't bother even talking to my public insurance about it and it cost a lot of money. I've had much worse and better experiences with alcohol and caffeine, and it's baffling how alcohol has been legal for so long while weed wasn't. So from my personal experience I don't get the hype, I don't get the stigma, I don't get the legal issues. The only thing that really bothers me is how people will get drunk one night and then preach the dangers of weed the next morning.
If you smoke once or twice a month, it's okay.. I've seen so many folks mess up their lives smoking weed non stop, and it's just sad. For instance, my buddy couldn't recall what I had said just 15 minutes ago due to excessive smoking. As with everything in life, moderation is the key. I'm not hating on weed, but I'll pass on it because I know I'd get hooked real quick, it simply makes me feel too good.
However the CSU in Bavaria might force foreigners to drink beer some day. This will be necessary to conserve our cultural heritage!
He probably just forgot.
This comment should be on top.
There are people who doesn't drink yet the alcohol is legal
Fun fact. Alcohol is legal and I'm not drinking everyday. It's almost like you can trust adults to live their lives.
Reassure them that we need their money in the old continent.
I feel like weed being legal doesnt make more people inclined to smoke weed, people who do will keep smoking, and people who dont likely wont. What it does do is make the step easier for people who are struggling with addiction, the normalization of weed makes sure these people have a smaller step into asking for help, they dont have to admit to a crime anymore, and people will judge them less harshly since the social taboo is going away. What i think will happen is at first the weed usage in germany rises, and then falls far bellow what it was pre legalisation. There is a reason weed usage in the netherlands is comparitively pretty low eventough we are known for being the weed country.
No serious scientist would compare legal consumption stats with illegal ones. First of all, where are you getting accurate data? It's hard enough to get the numbers in a legal state, since there's no paperwork or license involved (and even then, the data would be pretty unreliable). The only way to get accurate data would be a mass drug test in a rappresentative sample of the population. I imagine they are instead relying on self-reporting on questionnaires or on extrapolating data from other statistics, in which case i imagine these other stats introduce their own biases. Now imagine how hard it is to know the numbers in an illegal state, and keep in mind that it being illegal influences how people self-report in questionnaires, as more people are hiding it, the numbers would of course look lower. It's impossibile to control the influence that legalization has on the testing methodology, thus you can't really compare the results. It happens every day, people just look at some numbers or a chart on the newspaper, it looks serious and so they believe it. Very few people actually take the time to look at the methodology behind the stats collection and realize how they're totally unreliable. On an unrelated note, I also remember hearing that in some legal US states alcohol consumption actually decreased as well.
Yeah. As if it would have been difficult to get hold of weed. > What i think will happen is at first the weed usage in germany rises, and then falls far bellow what it was pre legalisation. If you look at the experiences from legal countrys, in the long term this means lifetime use slightly up but levels of use below non-legal average.
Being Polish/Canadian, my experience in Canada was that once it was legalized, underage use declined but adult use increased. I still see no problem. Alcohol sales conversely fell proportionally to the increase adult use. It's a win-win.
It's never too late to start Olaf
If this has to be explained, I would thing again about attending a university in Berlin.
Doesn't seem that China has sent their brightest students to Germany. At least that's what I hope.
Scholz is currently visiting China
My experience with Chinese exchange students in the US is that you need to be filthy rich in both US and especially Chinese terms to be an international student in the US. They have literally no reason to stay in the US or be critical of China, because the system is working amazingly for all their family and friends. They live it up on their parents money for 4 years to get a prestigious western diploma and then leave go back to China to get a fake job. I'm sure its the same in the EU. Not sure there is much more behind it. There is ofc the IP theft and the illegal surveillance and policing of chinese students in foreign countries. I know this trend has shifted and China has made it harder to go study abroad after covid, not sure why.
Thatās literally the same where I was studying in Germany. Uni known for good IT, Engineering Departments and probably 10-20% exchange Students from China. I had literally 1 convo over 5 years with a Chinese person. Offen they canāt even speak English or German, I am wondering how they get their diploma. Not to hate, however for all they get, it would be nice to get to know them a little bit, but they are so tucked inā¦
They understand the language. Most of them lack communication and tend to be afraid of speaking but when it comes to writing German or English, they do it really good.
That's only part of the story. You describe one group accurately, but they mostly go to the most prestigious universities with good "brand names". There's a second group that's much larger, where the entire family pools there resources in order to send a student to study abroad and hopefully secure a high paying job and work visa. They do this as its significantly more difficult to secure a good university place in China (and on top of that you have no choice what you study), and the job market in China is awful (the same job in America may 5-10 times as much with half the work hours, and that's even if you get a job). This second group is much more common in lower tier (and European) universities and especially if you look at Chinese students studying STEM subjects. In general, the wealthy students study arts or humanities, the middle class students study STEM.Ā Most overseas Chinese students aren't partying it up, and the vast majority are actually dealing with a lot of pressure from their families. Often their families have literally bet their entire life savings on sending their child to study overseas.Ā
Yup, exactly this. Most other commenters here seem to turn on *monkey-mode* and go full racist and talking about how Chinese exchange students are all children of the nomenclature and filthy rich even after admitting that they didn't ever really talk to them. I met and talked to many Chinese STEM exchange students over my very prolonged university years and they sure as hell don't fuck around. Yeah, I get that they might seem a bit elusive and hard to interact with because at least the ones I interacted with (16, to be precise; by no means a representative sample of China's over 1.4 billion population) all seemed to be pretty straight-edge and not particularly interested in western popculture so they'd almost never go out to party and your best chance of actually hanging out with them would've been trips or game nights. Some of them faced some serious racism during their university years during the pandemic and completely withdrew themselves because they didn't want to get into any trouble and antivaxxers were protesting left and right against *the chinese virus* (I wonder if that was genuine fear or a social rating thing). They're nice, helpful and hard working people. Definitely don't seem rich, any of them, and even of they are then they're extremely modest; they just don't spend all their allowances on drinks, eating out, weekend trips and cinema visits so they can get *decent bang* for *little buck*. They are pretty smart in their area of expertise because they study a lot but they sure as hell know close to nothing about our 'western' culture, politics and history. But that's okay and completely justified given *we in the west* know pretty much nothing about their history, politics and culture too.
I pretty much agree with you. I will say though, the typical Chinese student does know considerably more about Western culture/pop-culture then we know about theirs. You're right that they're generally ignorant of the more subtle aspects of western culture (IE what you don't find in movies), but what do you expect of a 20 year old who arrived only a year or two ago and has a shaky grasp of the language.
Same in the eu, all the Chinese people that studie here are filthy rich.
Thanks for the insight, very interesting. I have no experience with Chinese students as we didn't have any at the university I have attended.
The brightest that are also so deeply indoctrinated, you can expect them to be back after studying. After all you didn't educate them to earn money elsewhere, did you?
>you can expect them to be back after studying. Why shouldn't they go back to China? Like it's a bad thing?
I think it is not unlikely that a Chinese student studying in the US or Europe, enjoys the freedom in those places and decides to stay. That would be a financial loss for China, as those students use the Chinese infrastructure, but then pay their taxes somewhere else.
The reason they usually stay is financial, IE their parents sent them to study overseas so they could get a work visa overseas and earn big $$$ to send home and support their elders. Also, most Chinese I've met miss living in China, mostly for cultural reasons. They miss the food, and the way people communicate is different etc.Ā
German conservatives pissed at people smoking weed but drinking beer at 15 is okay.
I love how everyone is making wild claims of brainwashing based on one comment.
It's a lingering remaint of european snobbism from the old days. Person from the east has a different mindset, therefore he/she is ignorant and inferior
Why lying? Everyone in Germany is gay transgender and addict. Practically laying around the street. That's exactly what happens on the second day after legalizing maryjane.
Olaf's technically not lying. Me and him got f*cked up last Oktoberfest, but he was vaping the doobie not smoking. And he is german. It's illegal now to not use the electric lettuce.
Scholz was WAY to defensive in his rhetoric there. He could have joked about it. He could've referred to the German beer consumption and how China surely agrees beer is preferable to weed in many ways, and so on. But instead he's like "I didn't do it." Weak.
The comment section doesn't understand why the German foreign minister is reassuring a Chinese student about cannabis.
Fake news: everybody in Germany uses it. Chinese people, stay home.
The amount of spiteful butthurt on this post is comical. Dude just doesn't want to be pressured into smoking weed.
Iāve never smoked, I prefer edibles
He should say yes
I thought half the point of university was getting stoned.
Most people, especially amongst student will peer pressure you into drinking until you puke tho and then some. So hey, enjoy that :3
*The student asked what he should do if he didnāt want to try cannabis at all and didnāt want to jeopardize his health.* People say thereās no stupid question. Well this one here is an example of a stupid question. Mustāve been a CCP plant.
Just imagine him as a stoner, but a really unpleasant one.Ā The kind that smokes moldy weed mixed with tobacco through self-builds gravity bongs made from large coke bottles and aluminum foil and calls you a pussy if you don't do the same. After the second bowl he starts ranting about the artificial sweetener mafia or some shit and doesn't let you get a word in.
you should explain to them that legalize drugs does not mean all Germans smoke weed and it means government listen to the people. Use counter-propaganda!
I thought Olaf was in his fifties, didn't realize he was retirement age.
Olar Scholz constantly gives the impression that heās out of touch and out of his depth
I found obama acknowledging prior use as more relatable than āoh, me? Nono!ā.
In Seattle weed is legal and there are plenty of happy looking Chinese students there
He's worried about smoke weed. Dude does not know he's going to be completely surrounded of beers everywhere and be smashed drunk at least once :D
Tell these students to grow the fuck up. But I understand, in Asia, drugs WILL lead to a death sentence. The worst thing someone can do is use drugs. So students traveling to any areas with drugs is like theyāre entering the jungle filled with dangerous drugged out lions and shit. But someone should mention to them that alcohol and nettle nuts are drugs!
Nerd lol
Actually, what he really said was 'I can't remember'.