Can friends be as important as kinships or even more?
Everyone has a person to rely on when he is in trouble. people feel they are safe and secured when they are with this person. We call this beneficial one friend. Not only friend is beneficial, helping you out when you are in trouble, he also shares many good and bad moments of memories with you. He means more than just a beneficial person, and rather he is more like your family. Suppose, he is like your family, one might ask a question like this, "Is friend really as important as Kinships?" My answer to such a question would be 'yes it is,' friend can be as important as your kinship or even more than that. There are several supports for my opinion, but in this writing I am going to mention only one, which I think is most clear and has strong support for it and that is 'Friend is more beneficial than relative.
To support my opinion, 'friends is more beneficial than relative, I would like to mention old saying in korea "Neighbors are Cousins." Since long in Korea, friendship was compared to kinship due to its importance. The both were important at the time, however, unlike our expectation of ancient Korea (Joseon), having been family oriented society, friendship was sometimes valued above kinship. This is because ancient korea needed coordination of neighbors due to agriculture. We have to keep in our mind that relatives who were not in neighborhood, meaning that they are living in same community, were useless to the farmers, while for friends, they all were from neighborhood and had helped the farmers when they were in need. For such reason, korean ancestors had emphasized importance of close friends and keeping of relationship with them, And this idea is still valid till today. Nowadays, we rarely see our relatives that is maybe once or twice a year, and we have no interest in their daily lives too. Also, we don't ask for relatives` help, rather we go for our friends`. For instance, I myself had little time with my cousins, but had more time with my friends who are from my home town. Friends from my childhood know more about me than my cousins do. Even today, while my cousins are indifferent toward me, friends know me more than them and know what I really need.
Nowadays, we rarely look for relatives` help and have less sense of belonging, but with friends we share many things and definitely ask help more than our relatives. It seems, friendship is replacing kinship. For that kinship isn't as strong as past. In contrast, influence of friendship is expanding, for numerous people are leaving their hometowns and moving to unfamiliar towns. So for the question "Is friend really as important as Kinships?" I state friendship is as important as or even more than kinship because our relationship with relatives are weakening while friends' is expanding.
Seong Ji Lee
It's interesting that you tried to compare kinship and friendship in historical context. In ancient Korean society, indeed, friendship was prioritized and many folk tales still remain to tell beautiful stories about robust friendship. I firmly believe that in modern society where kinship is weaker than ever before, friendship is especially noteworthy and valuable asset that sustains people who are getting stressed out from their own daily life. Overall, I like your content, but I think it could have been better if you were more careful about gender-neutrality wording. You kept using the pronoun "he", but obviously it can be "she" as well....
ReplyDeleteAnyway, thank you for your writing. Enjoyed reading it :-)
Kim Keunho from summer session
I agree with your idea that kinship is becoming less important to people than frienship. Today, people see their kins mostly twice a year in New Year and Thanksgiving(Chuseok). All they do is awkwardly greet each one and have meals withuot much talk. Friends, are people ones are most comfortable with and can get help when needed. You also did a good job in bringing in historical background to make it plausible. I just want to suggest you to breakdown your point of 'friend is more beneficial than relative'. I think it is very general so maybe it would better to elaborate how it is beneficial, in what ways they are helpful. I also prefer you to use 'Singular They' for your possessive noun than 'he'. You can simply google it and see how you can use singular they. Nice Job:)
ReplyDelete-Dong Heui Kim
You've well compared friendship and kinship. I also agree to your opinion that friendship is more important than before. In my suggestion, it would be great that you write the reason, such as "Neighbors are cousins" in your first paragraph. This can be strengthen your writing. Thank you. / Yun jung hwan
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