Sunday, November 16, 2008
A True Friend
It's always exciting to learn about other cultures and the way that people act. In particular, my favorite people from another country have to be the Germans. Everytime that I learn something new about them, it just makes me want to go to the country. What got me really thinking the other day is thinking about how many friends I actually have. In the United States, we tend to consider everyone that we meet a friend, not an acquaintance, but a friend. We could have talked to them a total of 4 times and still consider them a friend. To the Germans, these people are not your friends. They like to distinguish the difference between an aquaintance and an actual friend. Germans define a "friend" as being someone who would do ansolutely anything for you. They would drop anything to help you or just be around you. So going back through all of the people that I would consider a friend, I can honestly say that I only have one friend. (As odd as that seems). Listening to more of what my professor had to say, she claims that these "Friends" in Germany are not so hard to find. I can't wait to be around these people. More and more I realize that because of the situations I am in, and the way that I think and feel at this stage in my life... I need to go to Germany.
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2 comments:
You nailed this one, Ryan. The Germans are very efficient people. To them, it is 'inefficient' to have more than a few 'friends' as that just takes time away from other friends. Also, I think if we all take stock, we'd come to the same conclusion about the 'real' friends we have. The way the Germans view this idea just simply makes sense.
I definitely agree with you. When I really think about it, there are probably only two or three people that I could truly consider to be real friends. I have always found it kind of funny how many friends people say they have. Take facebook for instance. Some people have hundreds of friends, but they probably only communicate with a small handful. The rest are simply acquaintances that they might be able to have a real conversation with. I also think that its cool what Frau Gell said about how Germans respond to boys and girls being friends. Germans don't freak out over opposite sex friends and just accept it. I would love it if American culture was like this. My best friend is female and I cannot tell you how many people just did not understand how we could be friends.
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