If you want to avoid prying questions and potentially having coworkers assume you’re a criminal, just say no.
Depends on who’s asking
Just say no and change the subject lol you won’t have a lie detector attached to you
Follow up: I understand you can just say no, but isn’t the whole point of the “Exchange” to learn about other cultures? Any advice on how to explain how it’s culturally different in other parts of the world instead of just saying no? (When appropriate)
Why wouldn’t you just say no(??)
It probably depends on who’s asking and where. Talking to someone at a bar in Tokyo, you can probably give a different answer than if you’re speaking to your students in a small village where everyone knows everyone else’s business and judges them for it.
Also bear in mind, weed may not be as dangerous a drug as, say, crystal meth or something. But there’s very little education or exposure to either in Japan, so to many folks they’re likely just as taboo. Expect people to make assumptions we would consider unreasonable in the west, simply because of how badly it’s portrayed.
If it’s a student just say that’s not an appropriate question to ask a teacher. Yadahaha
Say no to people who you are not close with. If you are hanging out with coworkers outside of school and you are close with them, you can tell them.
I did 4 years on JET and while I didn’t smoke weed before I had a lot of casual conversations about drugs sex and other taboo things with coworkers that I hung out with.
Do not tell whatever nosy teacher that you barely know anything about your life that you don’t want spread to everyone.
I’m from Vancouver, where it has always been prevalent before it was legalized. *Literally no one has asked this question; and I don’t know why they would*. Even if they did, by some strange circumstance, I would just laugh it off.
Japan classifies weed the same as hard drugs here, so it’s not worth admitting anything.
The only time I was EVER asked about this was when the local inaka dudes club took me out for sushi. I told them no and they seemed pretty disappointed for some reason. Was there for years and it never came up again.
I’ve only been asked this by younger friends who find out it’s legal in canada and want to go to there and try it.
They most likely won’t ask that. Marijuana being legal in Canada is far below their radar. They will most likely ask you about maple syrup and hockey. If it does come up, judge the situation. Kid? Say no. Co-worker? Say no. Local that has become your friend and you can chat about a lot of different things with? Sure.
You can be honest and say yes or say maybe. Just don’t endorse it or hype it up or anything. I do that here when people ask me if I smoke tobacco and a lot of Americans are anti-tobacco.
I haven’t had this exact question, but i have turned uncomfortable questions around and turned them into discussion topics. (Works best when you’re in a group and can let them debate it out by themselves)
I usually go: interesting question. I have met people who agree/disagree on the topic
and then quickly turn it around to ask them (befoee they can follow up on my lack of personal response) what they think of said uncomfortable topic, asking them why they think other people would/would not do it/agree/disagree
I’m not sure how you’d be avle to turn that around with such a direct question, but hopefully this helps.
No one has ever asked me anything like that, and I doubt they ever will since it’s classified as a hard drug here. It’s not a work-appropriate question at all. Coworkers or supervisors likely will never ask you unless they have good reason to suspect you are STILL using it, and the students don’t want to be caught asking the ALT about hard drugs. If somehow it possibly came up, say no or steer the conversation to something else.
I had a coworker ask about weed once, but he didn’t ask about my personal experiences and we just talked in general about how it’s viewed in America and how Americans view some drugs as more dangerous than others. He shared that Japanese people don’t really differentiate between weed and heroin.
I think that will be a key reason why you will probably never have to worry about this topic. If people ask you if you’ve smoked weed, it would be akin to them asking if you’re a hard core drug addict in their minds. Other than that coworker, the only people who have asked are younger friends who have experience living abroad or who have lots of foreign friends
For context, if a Japanese celebrity is caught with weed (or any other drug), not only are they arrested, but they’re fired from all current projects, their character is written off the show, etc and they’re black listed from the industry. Opinions are changing *slighly* among young people, especially in the hip hop scene, but for the most part drug use of any kind is extremely stigmatized. iirc the Japanese government has even tried to say that they’ll persecute Japanese people who do drugs abroad once they come back to Japan
I have had a teacher ask me about guns (in front of the 4th graders?) and I just explained that it’s a controversial subject in America and that not everyone is pro-gun. I did share that I don’t personally know anyone who owns a gun, which they found surprising since they thought basically all Americans owned and loved guns
16 comments
If you want to avoid prying questions and potentially having coworkers assume you’re a criminal, just say no.
Depends on who’s asking
Just say no and change the subject lol you won’t have a lie detector attached to you
Follow up: I understand you can just say no, but isn’t the whole point of the “Exchange” to learn about other cultures? Any advice on how to explain how it’s culturally different in other parts of the world instead of just saying no? (When appropriate)
Why wouldn’t you just say no(??)
It probably depends on who’s asking and where. Talking to someone at a bar in Tokyo, you can probably give a different answer than if you’re speaking to your students in a small village where everyone knows everyone else’s business and judges them for it.
Also bear in mind, weed may not be as dangerous a drug as, say, crystal meth or something. But there’s very little education or exposure to either in Japan, so to many folks they’re likely just as taboo. Expect people to make assumptions we would consider unreasonable in the west, simply because of how badly it’s portrayed.
If it’s a student just say that’s not an appropriate question to ask a teacher. Yadahaha
Say no to people who you are not close with. If you are hanging out with coworkers outside of school and you are close with them, you can tell them.
I did 4 years on JET and while I didn’t smoke weed before I had a lot of casual conversations about drugs sex and other taboo things with coworkers that I hung out with.
Do not tell whatever nosy teacher that you barely know anything about your life that you don’t want spread to everyone.
I’m from Vancouver, where it has always been prevalent before it was legalized. *Literally no one has asked this question; and I don’t know why they would*. Even if they did, by some strange circumstance, I would just laugh it off.
Japan classifies weed the same as hard drugs here, so it’s not worth admitting anything.
The only time I was EVER asked about this was when the local inaka dudes club took me out for sushi. I told them no and they seemed pretty disappointed for some reason. Was there for years and it never came up again.
I’ve only been asked this by younger friends who find out it’s legal in canada and want to go to there and try it.
They most likely won’t ask that. Marijuana being legal in Canada is far below their radar. They will most likely ask you about maple syrup and hockey. If it does come up, judge the situation. Kid? Say no. Co-worker? Say no. Local that has become your friend and you can chat about a lot of different things with? Sure.
You can be honest and say yes or say maybe. Just don’t endorse it or hype it up or anything. I do that here when people ask me if I smoke tobacco and a lot of Americans are anti-tobacco.
I haven’t had this exact question, but i have turned uncomfortable questions around and turned them into discussion topics. (Works best when you’re in a group and can let them debate it out by themselves)
I usually go: interesting question. I have met people who agree/disagree on the topic
and then quickly turn it around to ask them (befoee they can follow up on my lack of personal response) what they think of said uncomfortable topic, asking them why they think other people would/would not do it/agree/disagree
I’m not sure how you’d be avle to turn that around with such a direct question, but hopefully this helps.
No one has ever asked me anything like that, and I doubt they ever will since it’s classified as a hard drug here. It’s not a work-appropriate question at all. Coworkers or supervisors likely will never ask you unless they have good reason to suspect you are STILL using it, and the students don’t want to be caught asking the ALT about hard drugs. If somehow it possibly came up, say no or steer the conversation to something else.
I had a coworker ask about weed once, but he didn’t ask about my personal experiences and we just talked in general about how it’s viewed in America and how Americans view some drugs as more dangerous than others. He shared that Japanese people don’t really differentiate between weed and heroin.
I think that will be a key reason why you will probably never have to worry about this topic. If people ask you if you’ve smoked weed, it would be akin to them asking if you’re a hard core drug addict in their minds. Other than that coworker, the only people who have asked are younger friends who have experience living abroad or who have lots of foreign friends
For context, if a Japanese celebrity is caught with weed (or any other drug), not only are they arrested, but they’re fired from all current projects, their character is written off the show, etc and they’re black listed from the industry. Opinions are changing *slighly* among young people, especially in the hip hop scene, but for the most part drug use of any kind is extremely stigmatized. iirc the Japanese government has even tried to say that they’ll persecute Japanese people who do drugs abroad once they come back to Japan
I have had a teacher ask me about guns (in front of the 4th graders?) and I just explained that it’s a controversial subject in America and that not everyone is pro-gun. I did share that I don’t personally know anyone who owns a gun, which they found surprising since they thought basically all Americans owned and loved guns