Friends

          How many friends do you have? I have never had very many friends. And I consider myself a friendly person. I can usually count the number of friends I have on one hand. What is a friend, anyway?  We have different words for friends--buddies, buds, pals, mates, homies. Friend is a word that people define in many different ways. For me, a friend is someone who shares similar likes and dislikes as me. It is someone who I  like to hang out with, can go to if I need help, talk with or ask for advice, or even borrow a little money from if I am in a bind. I like spending time with a friend and can talk about pretty much anything. There was a popular program on TV a few years ago called Friends,  about a group a friends who share an apartment in New York City. I saw it a few times.

I saw something on the Internet recently that the average American has between five and ten friends. I have a best friend from high school that I still keep in touch with more than 40 years later. I still consider him a good friend. I have a couple of very good friends in Mexico. Even if I don't see them for years at a time, when I do see them again, I have the same feelings of friendship towards them.

 How many "friends" do you have on Facebook?  Most Americans have about 500 Facebook "friends."  Really?  How many of those "friends" do they even know?  Sometimes the word friend is confused with acquaintance and colleague, someone who we know or work with, but are they really friends?  Sometimes we might worry that we don't have enough friends. If you are living in the US and want to learn American English, it would be a good idea to have some American friends. Speaking with Americans is probably the best way to learn American English. Maybe we should focus on the the quality of our friendships and not the quantity. So, how would you define friend?  How many friends do you have? If you are an international student, do you have American Friends?