Kim Nam Ha/ Page 66 item D, E/ Prose & paragraph 2017 summer season

 

Item D

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

I used to have a similar situation like the author's, the moment that friends were so needed. During the spring semester, I used to take a Japanese oral class.  My first major is international sport leisure so not many students that I knew chose Japanese major. I chose Japanese major because although Japan and Korea do not exchange in the sport are a lot, lovely sounded language made me fascinated and wanted me to learn their language. So this spring semester, I registered. 5 classes of Japanese lecture. Oral, listening, writing, grammar, interpreting. I had to eat by myself alone and take classes or do homework with no one else's aid. I had to get myself together and go through the obstacles. I tried really hard to catch up the lectures. Such as recording the lecture or learning vocabs every day, writing diary in Japanese as well. And one day, when I went to the class, there were no one! Only the single announcement from the professor. It was written as "Today class will be held in the café. Attend the class please, thank you". I was so shocked and thought of thousands of café around the campus. I thought of texting class mates but no contact number that I knew. And when I checked the class syllabus, there were no professor's phone contact. So I searched for the places the café that I knew. And when I got there I was late for 40 minutes. I apologized for being late and made excuses. Every student stared at me as if I was prisoner who was sentenced for death penalty. I hated that I had no one to back me up, and I was very embarrassing.

 

Item E

1.     Relatives can be friends, but friends do not usually become relatives. Can friends be as important to you as relatives? Explain.

In my opinion, yes I believe families can be friends and in return friends also can be part of the family. However, friends are not biologically related, friends can be much more closer and rely on each other. Because friends know each other's situation more than others and there are no secret between them.  

2.     Can you be as good friends with someone from another culture as with someone from your own culture? Explain

No I probably will not get along with someone with unfamiliar culture because onetime I had Turkish friend who was my dormitory roommate. We hang a lot together but later it was hard for me to be friends because of the food that he could not handle. For a couple of weeks, we had pizza, hamburger, food that was fast food because he could not handle Korean food. In addition to that , he could not eat pork due to Muslim obligation. For us students, cow meat is very expensive that we hardly eat them in usual. So my roommate always wanted chicken. So almost every meal we had chicken. I got annoyed and refused to eat chicken from that time and I did not hang around with him after that.

 

3.     English has two contradictory sayings that can apply to friendship: "Birds of a feather flock together," and "Opposites attract." What do they mean? Which saying describes friendship more accurately in your experience?

 'Birds of a feather flock together' means friends hang out together who has similar characteristics. 'Opposites attract' means that friends make their relationship even though they do not have same characteristic. I believe I am like 'Birds of a feather flock together', I like drinking and playing games and friends that I hang along loves to play games and drink all night as well.

 

4.      I disagree with the statements that girls can make friends more easily. In my point of view, both of the gender can make friends easily. It is how that person can react to the friends they say. When perspective or hobbies are closely matched, no matter what the genders are, oneself gets interest on that other and wants to know more and be friendly.