On s’aperçoit d’une chose assez intéressante sur ces réponses c’est que il y a bien plus de gens de L’ENSEIRB qui préfère s’alcooliser avec la personne ivre que l’aider, hors pas expérience j’ai bien vu que c’est faux.
Un autre point qui est assez remarquable c’est que contrairement au MIT qui préfère veiller sur la personne tout en la laissant à la soirée, les élèves de l’enseirb préfèrent raccompagner la personne chez elle.

Pour ce cas nous pouvons constater que la majorité des élèves du MIT sont conscients des effets néfastes de l’alcool et donc prennent le parti d’aider leur ami, de prendre soin de lui. Une partie des élèves de l’Enseirb pense la même chose, mais le reste ont plus une vision “festive” de l’alcool, comme beaucoup d’étudiants en France qui ne manquent aucune occasion pour faire la fête. Ceci m’amène à me demander quels rapports ont les jeunes avec l’alcool aux Etats Unis? Vous arrive-t-il souvent de sortir, de boire?

On remarque bien qu’une majorité des élèves de l’ENSEIRB d’une manière festive tandis que les étudiants du MIT semble plutôt rétissants , dans la majorité. les conséquences de l’alcool semblent plus inquiétez les américains que les français. Cela pourrait s’expliquer par les traditions et les coutumes françaises notamment grâce aux cultures viticoles très présentes dans toutes la france.

I think the major difference between young people in the U. S. and in France, or really anywhere in Europe, is the difference in legal drinking age. It is likely that in most of these cases for MIT students, the drunk person is underage, so the MIT students probably want to prevent them from doing something stupid that will get them in trouble for underage drinking.
Also, since the legal drinking age so high in the U. S., it is more common, especially in high school and earlier in university, to binge drink when the opportunity presents itself, as opposed to going out to a bar and moderately drinking on a more regular basis. This is in contrast to Europe where I think drinking is more socially normalized, so sharing a drink with a friend over dinner or going out for one drink is normal as soon as you start university. Is social drinking in public (at bars, in restaurants) very common as soon as you begin university?

It’s clear that MIT students see this situation in a much more concerning manner than the ENSERIB students. In the US, it’s common for college students to drink to the point of being hospitalized. I agree with Julia in that this is largely due to the difference in drinking age. Because most college students who drink are underage, there is a culture of rebellious binge drinking. Is excessive drinking an issue in colleges/universities in France at all?

To respond to Alex’s statements. I think that MIT definitely has a “festive” view on alcohol, but specifically at MIT we have a very strong culture around being responsible about it. One of the unique things is MIT’s policy on “transports”, which are a free-of-charge ambulance service with no legal/disciplinary consequences at the time, and little afterwards. The idea is to keep people safe rather than have them risk injury/death to avoid getting punished. So even if we ourselves are drinking, legally or illegally, we keep an eye out for each other because it has been made so easy. This is not common among American schools, however.

I think Julia’s response answers ENSEIRB students’ questions pretty well. I was very surprised and worried by the drinking scene in Boston my freshman year as an international student. I saw many unconscious college students running and shouting on the streets.
Because drinking is not really a part of American culture and the drinking age is so high, teenagers don’t start drinking until they’re at college, away from their parents. 16-20 year-olds with very limited experience with different types of alcohol and no alcohol-tolerance don’t know how to drink responsibly. It’s also worth noting that the quality of alcohol American teenagers consume is much lower than in Europe since alcohol is a lot more expensive here. The cheap alcohol also contributes to the level of drunkness and feeling sick from alcohol, etc. Because we see a lot of examples of people getting sick at parties, blacking-out, getting transported, or hurting themselves somehow, we are more cautious about drunk friends at MIT and want to make sure they’re still making the right decisions.
Also, I have the feeling that, in general, American teenagers mostly drink to get drunk or because of peer pressure, whereas I have the perception that Europeans usually drink to enjoy their time and the drink itself.
I think the difference in reasons to drink also reflects on the behaviors of drunk teenagers. I’m curious whether it’s common in France to see very drunk teenagers on school campus, or on the streets, especially in the weekends.

Reading Romain’s comment taking a friend home versus just watching over him/her, I started thinking back to older questionnaires, and I got a sense that the students of ENSEIRB don’t open up as much to strangers as MIT students do. So I wonder if friends to the students of ENSEIRB would have stronger friendships than friends at MIT?

I agree with Sule that I think most college kids drink to get drunk or possibly out of peer pressure, but I think it’s more that people drink with the purpose of getting drunk. Therefore, we want to make sure, as other people have said, that our friends are being safe. I think that depending on where you go to school can vastly change the relationship that you see college kids have with alcohol. Students here do go out and drink, but probably not to the same extent as in most state schools and probably more than some other schools as well. And also getting back to what Sule said, most kids have not drank alcohol before coming to college, so when they get to a place with much more freedom and possibility to drink, they do not know their limits or when to stop. Do you think that since drinking alcohol at college-age is less taboo in France, that is why you are not worried as much about your friends?

I definitely feel like the MIT students are more afraid something bad will happen to their very drunk friend. I agree that this is partly from hearing about people drinking to the point of hospitalization, but I also feel like it’s related to hearing about bad things happening to drunk people, and the stigmas around drinking in the US leading to less general sympathy for the victim. I don’t feel like one hears about things like this happening in Europe. I suspect that the different cultural views of alcohol lead to very different outcomes for drunk people.

As Julia mentioned, binge drinking is a problem in the US underaged population given that the opportunity to drink does not come very often and they want to enjoy the alcohol as much as possible, in other words drinking a lot of it in a short period of time. However, I agree with Sule that enjoying the alcohol means different things in the US than in other countries where the legal drinking age is younger than 21. Coming from a place where the drinking age is 18, I definitely feel the difference in culture surrounding alcohol and I can see how it is very hard to actually “enjoy” the alcohol while being here in the US. In France, how would you describe a time where you enjoy drinking alcohol? What is one’s reasons behind drinking it?

Pour répondre à acfiallo, il y a beaucoup de moment où boire un verre est agréable. Cela peu être un moment d’échange entre amis dans un bar ou encore un repas entre amis. Au delà de se saouler, le fait de simplement boire un verre est très agréable et très commun.
Il est certe possible de boire autres choses mais il est vrai que la bière par exemple est devenu plus une coutume. Après c’est également un question de goût.

A question that I’d be curious to know the answer to that I believe Ana brought up in class on Wednesday is that what are ENSEIRB students’ definition of drinking too much? Is it different than getting very drunk? When I think of drinking too much I think that they might be throwing up or maybe they are very clumsy or slurring their words a lot. I think that they might be very hungover in the morning or that if they drink more they could put themselves at risk for alcohol poisoning. There are more harmless possibilities of drinking too much such as getting a hangover, but there are also more dangerous possibilities as well. I was also thinking that perhaps MIT students’ first reaction is to take care of their friends is because we don’t trust our friends to take care of themselves or acknowledge their limits, while ENSEIRB students’ first reactions to get drunk with their friends would be because they trust each other to only handle what they are capable of. Do you agree or disagree?

I have a close friend from Britain who revealed to me some of the drinking habits there. I associated the drinking culture there with what he described as the toxic hook up culture of youth there and to some extend with toxic masculinity. Being a male, he mostly spoke from the male side of things. He described a notion of “competition” between friend groups of guys within hook up culture, and often heavy drinking fell hand in hand with this. Obviously this type of experience aren’t a general rule for youth in Britain, however it was enough of a trend there for him to bring it up. I’d be interested to know it this culture is exclusive to this region, or if there are parallel experiences in other areas of Europe, such as France.

I’d also be curious to know about what education related to alcohol l’ENSEIRB students receive. At MIT (and most American universities), we are all required to watch videos about the dangers of drinking/what to do with a friend that has drunk too much/ when to call for help, and perhaps that influences our views. Do l’ENSEIRB students undergo a similar training, or is it uniquely American?

Christien, I feel like what you just explained about drinking culture in the UK coincides incredibly closely with drinking and youth culture in the United States. I think the divide in culture perhaps is not between North America and Europe but between Anglo and Latin cultures. To go off of a point that Jess brought up, do ENSEIRB students think they have a different notion of getting “too drunk”? Does your idea of it seem very far off from what Jess described?

Pour répondre au commentaire de Wendy, il n’y a pas réellement de campagne de prévention faite au sein de l’Enseirb vis à vis de l’alcool et de ses dangers.
L’alcool a une place importante dans la société française. Il est vrai qu’il serait intéressant que ce genre de prévention soit mise en place en France. Cela permettrait d’éviter certains drames.

Ce qui est sur c’est que l’image culturelle que l’alcool possède en France octroie beaucoup trop de liberté qui entraine des excès qui pourraient être éviter. Il serait donc justifier d’accentuer les préventions vis à vis des conséquences que peuvent entrainer la forte consommation d’alcool.