Hello there!
This is Lena, a really smiling tiny girl wondering if it's possible to keep a good friendship with somebody from other country.
Obviously, it is. Actually, I already have diverse foreign friends. So what do I really mean? I'm not just talking here about language exchange, but a real friendship. Do you find difficult to make friends from other countries through the Internet? What about keeping that contact? Having a relationship with somebody who may be thousands of kilometres from you... I met a lot of foreign people these years, and I really liked them and were nice people, but I just keep in contact with a few of them.
I think the most beautiful experience I had regarding to this issue was meeting a Korean boy through the Internet when I was 14 years old. I remember exchanging letters and mails about our lives and what we wanted to become. It's been 6 years since then and we're still in touch, actually he came to visit me 2 years ago and this year I went to Korea to visit him. But it's complicated to keep a friendship like this one because the affection has to be mutual and as we grow up we tend to take different paths from people we know -don't you remember guys, those friends from school that we used to play with and now we just wonder where they will be?-
What difficulties do you find at the time of trying to start a friendship with someone? As I am a girl, I'm usually contacted by boys and hardly ever by other girls. That makes me think that we look for somebody of the opposite sex? Maybe because we're looking for a romantic relationship or something? I'm not sure about this thing.
Ok, I really wrote a lot, sorry, but I'm really interested. I'd like to read some of your stories. Maybe you could tell me about your experiences with foreign friends. And another question, I was wondering if you are opened to all kind of people when exchanging languages or maybe you prefer a specific partner. For example if you want to contact just men of your age, or women, etc. or if you do not talk with some people because of something (age, nationality). As for me, I like speaking to everyone, it doesn't matter his or her age or nationality, but I understand that there may be people that are looking for something more specific (for example, I had a friend that just wanted to contact girls of her age).
Please, feel free to answer and let your mind fly!
Best regards,
Lena.
I agree with both comments from above. For me only way to maintain good relations with people from abroad is to visit them. There is no chance for mainting such "friendships" only on distance, because this is artificial. I had some internet friend, among whom only one was a person who visited me and I visited him (in Germany). However, due to the lack of time and difference in age (me 28-29 then, he around 50)it was a casual acquaintance.
It is easier, at least for me to maintaing acquaintance with females. I had even a chance to create a relationship with a person from abroad, which started on Skype and which started from....language contact (Russian for Polish). However I had some personal problems then and I couldn't go to Russia then, so it ended.
The most important thing is frankness and mutual respect, not only to one's person but also everything related to this person, like a country or culture. It is very hard to make a friend from a country which one person for some reason doesn't like or have some objections related to it. If somebody doesn't accept religion, culture or other features of the native country of one's "friend" it is very hard to maintain such relation.
I like making international friends over the internet. I make friends with people of all ages, sexes, and nationalities.
As far as keeping in contact, some on fb, some on skype, and some on whatsapp. What I like most about whatsapp is that I can send my friends text messages, voice messages, or pictures, and they reply when they have the time. Because we are in different time zones there is no need or expectation of an immediate reply but we can keep the conversation going for weeks.
<em>don't you remember guys, those friends from school that we used to play with and now we just wonder where they will be?-
</em>
I remember well. I had just one (one) friend at school) He's one of my closest friends right now, 24 years after the 5th grade, and obviously the oldest. Other my friends are his friends, friends of his friends, pupils of his friends etc:) Pretty effective way to find friends... within your own culture:)
'Look at the friends of a person who fits you - maybe you'll find another interesting person among them?'
But then comes the theory of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation : A friend of another your friend happens to be a classmate of you brother etc. And now...
A girl whose character reminded me a close friend of mine gave me a link to the text written by the first love of this friend, pretty important to her. Exacly the next day I contacted her.
She didn't knew the guy and my friend, and she was 8 years younger, she said she's just fascinated how the guy writes:/
Earth is getting small. But there are still barriers between cultures. 'a girl' in the internet is never a spanish girl, and if it was a Spanish girl she couldn't give that link in russian.
So I always wonder how it works with people of different cultures?
<em>"Maybe you could tell me about your experiences with foreign friends.</em>"
I have no such experiences:) Even in the less strict sense of the word.
<em>"And another question, I was wondering if you are opened to all kind of people when exchanging languages</em>"
I'm pretty open:)
<em>"or maybe you prefer a specific partner."</em>
Of course, I do prefer a specific partner. I mean... for example, anybody, with whom it's possible to develop a true friendship. You talk about friendship after all.
Any such person is a treasure - are any objections possible?
But I believe there no formal criteria for these. People are totally different. There can be some criteria that correlate with how well a person fits you...But they aren't precise. Intuition works better:)
What do you mean, when you say "keeping friends"?
