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I'm the assholes like 300m down the road playing robotic advertisements on a speaker so loud that glass is shaking in the apartment where the white guy was trying to take a nap.
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Mar 7, 2017 05:42
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The Butcher posted:China goons, have been meaning to ask, what's the deal with the staring thing? For some reason if you don't touch or speak to (interact directly with) people in a public setting, you are not considered involved in the situation. If a guy is slapping his wife repeatedly while she's sprawled on the pavement, a bystander leaning over them is not considered part of the situation as long as he doesnt touch or speak to the abuser, and will therefore be ignored and not be asked to leave or to assist the victim. Basically, crossing your hands behind your back activates a social cloaking field. As a non-participant you can walk freely through third-party confrontations and won't be acknowledged by participants. This is very different from many cultures where the act of observing a confrontation means you need to either pick a side or leave.
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Mar 7, 2017 05:48
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ladron posted:if they ever actually do manage to get one to land on Japanese soil, they better bust out the champagne real quick because that will be north korea's last day :armchairstrategist: [clancytalk] That would be very unlikely. The tests that the North has been doing have not been so much a show of force against Japan or the US*, but a warning of what they could do to South Korea should someone try and take down the regime. North Korea's nuclear/ballistic missile program is basically the equivalent of the intended point of the doomsday weapon from Dr. Strangelove. "You can attack and likely destroy us, but one of your closest allies could potentially be crippled beyond repair". While a combined US/ROK/Japanese strike on the DPRK would quickly render them unable to exert any damage past their borders (let's avoid artillery chat this time around), the fear that one nuke could make it to Seoul and kill/displace 10 million people is a huge gamble to take. If the Norks can get a warhead small enough to fit on one of their truck-portable ballistic missiles, then pre-emptively striking them before launch could become impossible. Also, if the North did actually use a nuclear device, then it would likely be a sign that the regime sees no way out and wants to take as many people with them as possible before they implode/end up against a wall. In such an event, China would probably just sit back and ignore their former ally, entirely forgetting about face. *Hitting a US city would be difficult, maybe even impossible for quite a few more years. Getting a missile through Japan's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System (which apparently always has a ship or two ready to intercept) might be just as difficult. On the other hand, before THAAD is installed, South Korea remains an easy target given they are close-by, Seoul is massive, and the ROK navy didn't opt into the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System for their destroyers. LentThem posted:For some reason if you don't touch or speak to (interact directly with) people in a public setting, you are not considered involved in the situation. If a guy is slapping his wife repeatedly while she's sprawled on the pavement, a bystander leaning over them is not considered part of the situation as long as he doesnt touch or speak to the abuser, and will therefore be ignored and not be asked to leave or to assist the victim. Also, as a foreigner, getting involved in any way, even if you are being filmed coming to the rescue of the abused spouse automatically activates the, "we can get money from this guy" subroutine in all other parties involved. In less than a second the police, the abusive spouse, and the victim will have come to an agreement (as well as a common story) using telepathy to all agree to stick it to you. Blistex fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Mar 7, 2017 |
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Mar 7, 2017 05:59
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The sushi place I go to for lunch has a big TV set up playing Korean music videos and soaps all day. It's made me pretty indifferent to the safety of south korea.
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Mar 7, 2017 06:04
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Blistex posted::armchairstrategist: [clancytalk] all I'm saying is that if a missile lands on Japanese soil, I don't think Japan is going to suck it up and take it like an abused spouse the way South korea did when Yangpyongdo got shelled a few years ago. Doubly so now with Trump in the white house. A quick stomp of a lovely poor country without any thought to the consequences seems just his style. Baronjutter posted:The sushi place I go to for lunch has a big TV set up playing Korean music videos and soaps all day. It's made me pretty indifferent to the safety of south korea. and this guy never even lived there
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Mar 7, 2017 06:14
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Last night I was talking with a friend about a restaurant we were planning to eat at, and I suddenly remembered: Back in 2007, someone I know wanted to launder some money (or just get rid of it, I couldn't be sure). I was in China and they offered me about $20k USD total to start a business here if I wanted. I asked my GF at the time what she thought, since she worked in foreign trade. She had a bunch of ideas, but no faith to get things started properly. This was before smartphones in every Chinese hand (barely any abroad, either), Taobao, and all sort of stuff. I got the idea to open a food stall. I could manage it and cook, and my GF could be the cashier/translator for the orders. She thought it was a good idea. I decided to make a samosa stall, since those are easy. I had seen the lines for the banana roti stalls and figured Chinese would like my Indian fried "dumplings" and having a foreigner make them, since they were okay with seeing brown guys make their food. I talked with that person and got serious about it. I decided to wait a little while just to see how I felt later and make sure it was going to be money well spent. China caught up to me and I realized how awful and backwards it is dealing with anything here. By that point I was utterly disgusted with China and the culture and never ever wanted to come here again. It was the Wild West days, when 1USD was 8RMB and the prices on everything were much lower, and foreigners could get away with all sorts of poo poo on any kind of visa they pleased. None of the "Chinese Century" arrogance had appeared yet, and the government wasn't quite fanning the flames of resent and/or hatred of outsiders so much because they were desperate to get money and gain Face that China wasn't a backwater village built over a sewage pond. The locals were more curious than mistrusting, and it was probably the ending of the best times to be in the country for the foreigner freedoms one could have. LOL, how awful would my life had been had I gone forward with that idea? LentThem posted:For some reason if you don't touch or speak to (interact directly with) people in a public setting, you are not considered involved in the situation. If a guy is slapping his wife repeatedly while she's sprawled on the pavement, a bystander leaning over them is not considered part of the situation as long as he doesnt touch or speak to the abuser, and will therefore be ignored and not be asked to leave or to assist the victim.
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Mar 7, 2017 06:15
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Haier posted:
I dunno, man, free samosas..
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Mar 7, 2017 06:20
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Haier posted:China caught up to me and I realized how awful and backwards it is dealing with anything here. By that point I was utterly disgusted with China and the culture and never ever wanted to come here again. Nice, you really learned a valuable lesson 10 years ago.
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Mar 7, 2017 06:21
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Blistex posted:entirely forgetting about face. not gonna happen
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Mar 7, 2017 06:24
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Yorkshire Pudding posted:Nice, you really learned a valuable lesson 10 years ago. Just like a junkie is like "Gimme one more hit, maaan. I swear it's muh last." BTW, which one of you gave me my avatar? Come on. I want to know.
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Mar 7, 2017 06:25
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i get the impression that you'll move to wherever you're offered a free place to live, regardless of whether you like the country
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Mar 7, 2017 06:36
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Fauxtool posted:not gonna happen I don't know. If you've got a front-row seat to the most concentrated bombing/missile campaign the earth has ever seen, and tactical nukes are being dispersed like confetti, and there is a wall of ignited napalm spanning the full length of the DMZ, 3km wide, you might want to swallow your pride and just stay out of it. At the most, maybe wait until the UN reconvenes and submit a protest. ladron posted:all I'm saying is that if a missile lands on Japanese soil, I don't think Japan is going to suck it up and take it like an abused spouse the way South korea did when Yangpyongdo got shelled a few years ago. Doubly so now with Trump in the white house. A quick stomp of a lovely poor country without any thought to the consequences seems just his style. It would depend on a lot of things. If it was an unarmed missile and North Korea was saying, "we could if we wanted to", then it would be a roll of the dice. You'd probably see the US steaming half their Pacific Arleigh Burke/Ticonderoga fleet to the Sea of Japan and setting up a few THAAD batteries within a week to ensure that nothing else could possibly make it through, all the while trying their damnedest to keep Japan from starting something. Now if it had a conventional/chemical/biological warhead, you might see a limited strike against North Korean missile sites and facilities, as well as anything that looked remotely like a nuclear weapons facility. If Kim decided he was getting tired of being treated like a god and banging all the top-shelf pussy in North Korea, and wanted to end it all and send over an actual Nuke, then you could bet that the response would be such that the US, ROK, and Japan were sure that North Korea wouldn't be able to send a single bullet past the DMZ. 
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Mar 7, 2017 06:42
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im not saying they wont stay out of it, im saying its impossible for them to consider losing face. They will just make up some bullshit excuse like a computer outage for why they cant help
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Mar 7, 2017 06:50
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Fauxtool posted:im not saying they wont stay out of it, im saying its impossible for them to consider losing face. They will just make up some bullshit excuse like a computer outage for why they cant help Ok, I misunderstood you.
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Mar 7, 2017 06:54
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bongwizzard posted:I mean all waterfowl are huge jerks so I am gonna side with the mystery egg smasher on this one. Australian black swans are actually pretty chill. As long as you're not acting like a dickhead, they'll pretty much ignore you exist to the point of walking through your picnic.
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Mar 7, 2017 06:58
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I love swans because it's awesome watching that 3-5 year old little brat who hasn't been taught how to treat animals get a lesson from a swan. There's an embankment along the Vltava river in Prague where you can just sit and watch people, often tourists with families, and watch the mostly russian dad goad their kids into messing with the swans. Those swans do not take to being messed with. Swans are great and the ones I fed were my friends.
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Mar 7, 2017 07:59
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Gorilla Salad posted:Australian black swans are actually pretty chill. As long as you're not acting like a dickhead, they'll pretty much ignore you exist to the point of walking through your picnic. My dad used to take me to feed the black swans when I was a kid and I was terrified of those things as they snatched bread out of my hand. He called them 'Old red eyes' which didn't help the situation. Never bothered to mention the area was teaming with tiger snakes.
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Mar 7, 2017 08:09
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Haier posted:BTW, which one of you gave me my avatar? Come on. I want to know. What is your avatar? Looks like a fly landed on his nose.
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Mar 7, 2017 08:11
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The Butcher posted:Like if an ethic chinese person got on the bus but was wearing weird clothes or had a physical deformity or whatever would people give them a minutes long no fucks given staredown or would that be rude? Yes they will stare at the Chinese person too, but have you considered how wonderful it would be for them if the person with a gimp leg or facial deformity were also an exotic animal of the West?
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Mar 7, 2017 09:57
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I like how incredibly anxious old people get here when they actually have to wait in line for something like a supermarket or other service where cutting isn't a direct path or acceptable. It triggers some part of their brains where they can't process what is happening, so the feet start shaking and the urge to push and shove becomes unbearable to them. They do it anyway, but they know they can't just walk to the front of the line anymore (though many do or try). They attempt any possible way, even though entirely useless, to make it seem like they are ahead of the next person in line. WarpedNaba posted:What is your avatar? Looks like a fly landed on his nose. LentThem posted:i get the impression that you'll move to wherever you're offered a free place to live, regardless of whether you like the country From 2009 I stopped going to China completely. It was in 2015 when I decided I might try again. It was actually a good time, and much less frustrating than expected while being noticeably different than before. In 2016 I decided to come back, thinking it would be a repeat of the previous year. It was more frustrating than expected and probably been a 4.5/10 on the enjoyable scale. As Chinese would say, it's been "so so." I have become so disinterested that every time I leave the house I feel like I have to remind myself where I am (except it tends to do that for me). I already talked to my friends who own the places I usually rent in India. I will be going there after the hot season there ends and enjoying the monsoons between 45C dry days.
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Mar 7, 2017 10:49
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Haier posted:It was from a photo of an army exercise where soldiers were in the snow screaming a the top of their lungs together, I guess to circulate qi or something stupid like that. The rigorous standards of the Chinese army, etc. I have no idea when it became my avatar, since I have them turned off. I'm reminded of the big military parade they held in Beijing a few years ago, the one where you saw Xi sticking his head out the sunroof of his car to inspect the troops. After the parade they showed a short montage of the parade troops practicing how to march perfectly for the ceremony. It reminded me of the old training montages you'd see in a Rocky movie, with sweat streaming down the troop's face and their mouths twisted in agony as they strained to make every move perfect. You'd think they were training to be SEALS or special forces, not how to march like automatons on parade day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfT5Mn7kgio "Highly classified training for military parade"
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Mar 7, 2017 11:27
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Haier posted:It was from a photo of an army exercise where soldiers were in the snow screaming a the top of their lungs together, I guess to circulate qi or something stupid like that. The rigorous standards of the Chinese army, etc. I have no idea when it became my avatar, since I have them turned off. iirc you quoted it and said lol so someone got it for you
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Mar 7, 2017 11:29
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KillingPablo posted:I'm reminded of the big military parade they held in Beijing a few years ago, the one where you saw Xi sticking his head out the sunroof of his car to inspect the troops. After the parade they showed a short montage of the parade troops practicing how to march perfectly for the ceremony. It reminded me of the old training montages you'd see in a Rocky movie, with sweat streaming down the troop's face and their mouths twisted in agony as they strained to make every move perfect. You'd think they were training to be SEALS or special forces, not how to march like automatons on parade day. Most PLA soldiers probably get really disillusioned with their choice to join after their first or second firing range session. That's probably the point where they realize that they're not actually becoming soldiers, rather goons to scare people into staying in line with the Party's rules. People who end up on parade duty must have a strange mix of pride/dread, since goose-stepping for a month prior to the Beijing Military Parade has got to be excruciating and mind-numbingly boring, but much face is gained by doing "Army Ballet" for uncle Xi and CCTV.
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Mar 7, 2017 15:28
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Gorilla Salad posted:Australian black swans are actually pretty chill. As long as you're not acting like a dickhead, they'll pretty much ignore you exist to the point of walking through your picnic. Third World Reggin posted:iirc you quoted it and said lol so someone got it for you Blistex posted:Most PLA soldiers probably get really disillusioned with their choice to join after their first or second firing range session. That's probably the point where they realize that they're not actually becoming soldiers, rather goons to scare people into staying in line with the Party's rules. People who end up on parade duty must have a strange mix of pride/dread, since goose-stepping for a month prior to the Beijing Military Parade has got to be excruciating and mind-numbingly boring, but much face is gained by doing "Army Ballet" for uncle Xi and CCTV. Patriotism is extremely unlikely to enter into it
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Mar 7, 2017 16:23
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Blistex posted:Most PLA soldiers probably get really disillusioned with their choice to join after their first or second firing range session. That's probably the point where they realize that they're not actually becoming soldiers, rather goons to scare people into staying in line with the Party's rules. She wants to sign up to be a civil servant soon, so she's preparing for the exam.
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Mar 7, 2017 16:51
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 http://www.ef.co.uk/epi/ quote:The world's largest ranking of countries by English skills Edit: That website is really cool if you click around. You can choose a country and see which areas/cities speak better English than others. Argentina being the best in English in Latin America is cool. Edit again: You can compare countries. China versus Argentina. Chinese Century! http://www.ef.co.uk/epi/compare/regions/ar/cn/ Haier fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Mar 7, 2017 |
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Mar 7, 2017 17:00
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Not a lot of surprises there (after realizing they discluded actual English-speaking nations). Argentina for example, despite having a shithole currency that keeps defaulting due to government embezzling, actually has a huge tech&business sector they pride themselves on, so english among white-collar jobs is super prevalent.
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Mar 7, 2017 17:28
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Haier posted:Argentina ......is cool. can confirm
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Mar 7, 2017 17:28
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They break it down by country, too, so we can all check out the fact that Thailand shows a 10-point gap in English proficiency between women and men. 
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Mar 7, 2017 17:45
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Deceitful Penguin posted:So much like with another species on this planet, the white ones are the lovely, greedy and violent ones? My wife's cousin joined up for a tour and he and the other guys in his company were extremely disillusioned with the process. While I'm sure having a job is one factor, in most provinces you actually have to pay to join, so that they don't end up with every poor sap with no options walking into the nearest recruiting office (basically the SA paywall's purpose). Even though he was in Liaoning province, he and his company still ended up doing parade duty in Beijing (probably because their PLA base had a mechanized division in it with tanks and APCs, which look good in parades). Basically he said that most of the people in there were either joining up because they wanted to be actual soldiers (his reason included) or their parents paid for them to join up because they were screw-ups and this was a way to keep them out of trouble/poverty because their dad's were not rich enough to give them cushy office jobs. He was in for a month before they even got to hit the range, and in one day he was allowed to fire off (6 or 9) rounds, in three round semi-automatic intervals. He and his comrades didn't even get to see how they did on their marksmanship because everyone was firing at the same target. The bulk of their training (that was not parade related) was mobilizing into the back of troop-trucks and unloading on to trains/buses to be able to be rapidly deployed to some area that a protest was happening/going to happen. Haier posted:That girl I was dating, who was a soldier for about three years (I believe), still thinks China is a good place and has faith in the government. Even if she is interested in other countries and philosophies, she still wants to serve for China. Yes, she even got to shoot guns regularly and go around the country doing different duties. Women are such a small percentage of the PLA that they usually treat them like show-horses (especially if they are easy on the eyes) and if they are looking to make a career of the army, they usually get a lot more resources spent on them than their male comrades. Also the provinces make a huge differences as well as the commanding offices of the garrison. You might have a base that is located in a protest hot-spot or near a disputed border. Those soldiers usually get some actual training and are expected to be soldiers. Places closer to Beijing are going to focus more on crowd control and parade training. Also the CO of the garrison might care about training his troops and having them actually trained (shooting, driving their vehicles, going on manoeuvres, etc.), or he might be pocketing the money earmarked for those things, or just not doing anything because that saves money, and he wants to get noticed and promoted because of that.
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Mar 7, 2017 17:55
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http://shanghaiist.com/2017/03/06/comprehensive-sexuality-education.phpquote:China has made a critical move to help reform its abysmal sex education system by introducing a surprisingly progressive curriculum for primary school students, and some parents aren't happy about it at all. I was born too soon for the proper hair cave experience.
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Mar 7, 2017 18:29
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That sounds too nice for china 
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Mar 7, 2017 18:37
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Baronjutter posted:That sounds too nice for china You can bet that 90% of the schools in China will never see those curriculum documents, and 99% of teachers will be way to shy/squeamish/angry to actually undertake such lessons, and everyone will continue to get their sexual education from Japanese public transportation rape porn like Mao intended.
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Mar 7, 2017 22:23
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LentThem posted:
True but I think if they see a laowai stepping in and maybe hitting the dude the in group out group poo poo starts and all watchers will jump in to save the face of the local.
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Mar 7, 2017 23:25
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Haier posted:
 Blistex posted:My wife's cousin joined up for a tour and he and the other guys in his company were extremely disillusioned with the process. While I'm sure having a job is one factor, in most provinces you actually have to pay to join, so that they don't end up with every poor sap with no options walking into the nearest recruiting office (basically the SA paywall's purpose). Even though he was in Liaoning province, he and his company still ended up doing parade duty in Beijing (probably because their PLA base had a mechanized division in it with tanks and APCs, which look good in parades). Basically he said that most of the people in there were either joining up because they wanted to be actual soldiers (his reason included) or their parents paid for them to join up because they were screw-ups and this was a way to keep them out of trouble/poverty because their dad's were not rich enough to give them cushy office jobs. Still, I haven't kept up with the topic in any way at all; the only thing I read about that interested me was how kleptocratic the generals were and how they'd become a fiefdom of their own, dunno how much that has changed.
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Mar 7, 2017 23:30
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isn't singapore's official languange english
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Mar 8, 2017 01:57
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get your poo poo together, singapore
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Mar 8, 2017 02:00
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https://twitter.com/XHJapanese/status/836946070605180929 truly china is the envy of the world im the purpose made ball smashing device Fauxtool fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Mar 8, 2017 |
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Mar 8, 2017 02:08
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I am incredibly suspicious of a list claiming South Korea has better English proficiency than Hong Kong. My anecdotal Asia English rankings: Malaysia Hong Kong Cambodia Thailand China South Korea Japan
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Mar 8, 2017 02:14
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Grand Fromage posted:I am incredibly suspicious of a list claiming South Korea has better English proficiency than Hong Kong. You really think China is above Korea? I could understand North Korea.
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Mar 8, 2017 02:17
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