To me, international friendship means much more than a simple, normal friendship. International friendship binds people from different countries, different races and different religion together. Fate brought us together that we can amazingly come together to be friends, a true friend who have similar interests or hobbies.
Everyone of these friends is like a star, shining and brighting others with their own strengths and abilities. Getting to know them may be a difficult and courageous step, however, would further allows us to know more about their unique and the one and only personality.
Moreover, I think that International friendship is very important to help us building our characters as we are able to accept our differences, accepting it and overcome it.
Lastly, a poem that I always hide within myself to thank my wonderful and fantastic International friends.
Importance of diplomatic relations with other countries
Diplomacy is the way in which countries manage their relationships with one another and it is also define as the practice of conducting negotiations among countries. Diplomacy aims to resolve conflicting interests in a peaceful manner and also to promote common interests. Maintaining diplomacy relationships between countries is essential and also beneficial for these countries. Some of the many functions of diplomacy is that it prevents War, violence and dispute from occurring. These relations enable several countries in coming to a common agreement by negotiating that would be beneficial to their citizens.
As quoted from a famous person, Nicolson :
“Diplomacy is neither the invention nor the pastime of some particular political system, but is an essential element in any reasonable relation between man and man and between nation and nation”
Regional relations: With the combination of the member countries, the association will become stronger. For example the famous organisation ASEAN. ASEAN is the combined strength of different countries and help economically, socially, environmentally and also politically to lead to prosperity for ASEAN countries.
International relations is the development of foreign relationship among many countries throughout the world and this includes relationships between countries and organisations in the world. UN (united nations) work on helping countries to come together for negotiations as well as help to represent all countries in the world as an organisation.
An organization have a few important aims such as Maintaining world peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting respect for equal human rights.
How can we maintain our friendship with a person of different nationality?
Social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, skype, facetime, whatsapp, line, can help with maintaining friendship with friends of different nationality.
We can post our daily routine on facebook to show them how our life is. We can also send photos directly to them through social means. If we wanted to see each other so much, we can communicate through facetime and skype. We can also leave them a message through whatsapp, line and such applications.
To show them your sincerity, instead of sending them things online, we can also do it offline by sending them letters, pictures and postcards. However conserving the usage of paper can be important to the Earth, sending emails instead of letters might be the eco-friendly alternative. Exchanging gifts is also a good way to maintain a friendship with them. If possible, surprise them with a visit to their house with a gift. If times don’t permit, we can send them “gifts” such as stickers on messengers like facebook, line, wechat etc.
Although studying is important, giving yourself time for enjoyment is also a part of our life. Playing online games once in a while with them, even with some of your other friends, might take your friendship to another level.
Most importantly we should communicate using a common language instead of your mother tongue. However, in order to add some sparks to your communication, we may exchange some basic language uses for your mother tongue to encourage each other to learn a new language. This may be of great help in the future when you may want to visit them or even help you in your future. Having a second common language may bring joy to both parties while correcting each other’s mistakes and learning together.
Advantages of having an overseas friend / friends from another country
Why should we have overseas friends? Of course, we would get to learn more foreign languages. By knowing more foreign languages, we would be able to communicate well with the people in other countries. We will have lesser miscommunications with foreign people.
Searching online for the cultures and practices of other countries might be help us to understand their cultures, but how true can the information be? Thus, by having overseas friends, we would have a more factual understanding of their cultures and practices. With this, we will be able to put ourselves in their shoes and understand them better. We will also not do things which will offend the locals in their countries. For example, some hand signs may be offensive in some countries, while it may be not offensive in other countries. The video below shows some hand signs that is not to be used in certain countries.
Being able to make friends with people from another country and learning about their culture will prevent bias towards oneself. This will allow us to be more sensitive to cultural bias, not to be self-centered, selfish and make stereotypical assumptions based on their race or nationality. We will then be more open up to make friends with them regardless of race and religion.
Our friends overseas are living in a totally different environment and thus may have different mindset which can help us see our problems from another perspective and broaden our minds, making us a more understanding person.
If you are able to visit the house, the first-hand experience to enjoy their local food, try on their traditional costumes and to live in their lifestyle will definitely be beneficial for us. Also, exchanging souvenirs such as a key-chain with orchid flowers will be meaningful. In this way, we will know the national flowers of other countries as well as other national icons.
“Friends from different cultures are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Each one helps you see the larger picture.”
It’s a day to celebrate friendship.The idea of World Friendship day was first proposed on 20 July 1958. It was proposed by Dr. Artemio Bracho while he was having a dinner with friends in Puerto Pinasco in a town called Paraguay.The first world friendship day is proposed in 30 July 1958. It was just a humble meeting of friends, and the World Friendship Crusade was born. It is a foundation that promotes fellowship and friendship among everyone, regardless of race, colour or religion. From then onwards, 30 July has been celebrated faithfully as Friendship Paraguay every year. Several other countries also adopted this day.
On 2 August, the founder of the famous Hallmark cards, Joyce Hall started celebrating Friendship Day. On this day, friendships were celebrated by exchanging cards with each other. It started in Europe and other countries adopted it. The ambassador of International Friendship Day is Winnie the Pooh, named by the united nations.
Some friends acknowledge each other with exchanges of gifts and cards on this day. Friendship bands are very popular in some countries such as India and Nepal. Having a variety of social networking sites, it became popular for Internet user to celebrate Friendship Day via social media.It’s a day to acknowledge friends by exchanging gifts and cards. Nowadays, many people would exchange friendship bands.
Annually, schools in Singapore celebrate International Friendship Day which aims to provide our students with a better understanding of Singapore’s relations with our neighbouring countries. It allows our students to know the geopolitical realities that are important to Singapore and the needs to be open to the global flow of trade, ideas and talent. we can then able to work with others from different cultures.
International Friendship Day in 2014 falls on Sunday, August 3.
