Kim Keunho/ p66 // summer session

D-2 Have you ever have been in a situation like the author's, where you really needed a friend?

  I experienced a similar situation, if not entirely the same. This semester, I was really having a lot of difficulties catching up with the class materials and lessons, because what I thought to be a linguistic class was actually a statistics and programming class about which I had no idea. Every week, the assignments that were hard to deal with were given to me but still, I have no other options but to appealing(?) or searching on internet by my own. At the same time, it required me a basic linguistic knowledge which I also didn't possess, so it was extremely hard for me to create and submit a quality assignment that the professor can accept. One of my friend, who is majoring in statistics and computer programming, recognized that I was having a terrible time, struggling with something that is way beyond my capability and willingly volunteered to give me a help, for the sake of promoting my understanding about the given tasks. I felt a huge relief and gratitude for my friend, who was committed to help me despite his busy schedule in his workplace. Owing greatly to my buddy, I managed to catch up with the class and finally succeeded to pass the course with the good grade.

 

E-1 Relatives can be friends, but friends cannot become relatives. Can they be as important as relatives?

 Friends can't be relatives unless they share the same bloodline and that's a lame story. My answer to this question is 'yes', definitely. I even think that in many circumstances, friends are more meaningful than relatives thesedays. Our society experienced decomposition of the traditional family type and relatives have been peripheralized or alienated in the personal relationship.  On the other hand, friends do mean more than relatives who have no similarities other than genes and family trees. With friends, we share ideas and daily experiences and we come to accumulate intimate and solid relationship based on those. No other relatives would be able to match the status or functions of friends; that will rarely happen. We get a lot of peer pressure and influences while we grow up and committed to each other when faced with difficulties or challenges. That's what friends are for. In conclusion, under modern society, I firmly believe that friends can definitely have more meaning and importance that relatives.