D. Helping each other understand
I don't have been in that tough situation like author, but I believe that we can make a friend whatever the characteristic and background is. It doesn't matter to become a friend. I think myself as an introvert person, very timid, but I have a friend who is completely opposite to me. Furthermore, each of my friend has different family background, different interests and values. I also have foreign friend from Zimbabwe, Africa. At first time we met, we only used English to communicate, but since I teach him a Korean language, we use both languages in our talk. I felt little bit awkward at first, but I became closer to him by teaching Korean language. We still have a familiar relationship with each other. So I think excessively bother about differences, such as personal or cultural backgrounds, would made a mental gap to each other.
E. Critical thinking
2. Can you be as good friends with someone from another culture as with someone from your own culture?
In my experience, I think sometimes my friends are more familiar than my relatives. When I was a kid, relationship between me and my cousins were very close. However, getting older, we were busy at doing own work and going to school, and relatives moved even farther away from our home. So we only meet at holidays, such as New Year or chuseok. As we see the face at most two times in a year, our relation became no much familiar than before. Of course, we enjoy the time we meeting, but sometimes it feels like somewhat customary affair in family relationship. On the other hand, I meet my friends almost every day, my circle friends. Especially, in this semester, I think spend more time with my friends than my relatives. I feel more comfortable to my friends.
I perfectly agree to the opinion that friends can be as important as relatives. In fact, relatives support me when I am in trouble. They would understand my problems and worries in the name of family, but I think friends can do so. When we have reliable friends, we disclose our problems to friends and find a better solution. In this case, they can be a great help in difficult situation. Furthermore, friends can easily sympathize to our troubles, because they may share the same circumstances, for example, studying at same school and spending a spare time together. Some people would say "Family do not abandon and betray you in any circumstances." but it isn't true always. This is a kind of prejudice. We often see the news that the family and relatives torn apart by the fight. On the other hand, relationship with congenial friends can be maintained for a long period of time. I think it is prejudice that friendship is weaker than relationship of family, in other words, it is not to say that relations to relatives are more important than friends.
Yeah.... relatives are becoming less important than ever before and it is true that some often feel distant about relatives. Friends are more important to most of us (I'm being very general though), and sometimes it can be as strong as family bondage. I like your opinion~!
ReplyDelete