"Lost in Translation- Friendship" by Jieling Yang

Jieling Yang (Ling)

English 100

September 21, 2011

                                                       Lost in Translation- Friendship

Have you ever lost something or someone that is important to you? One day, my father told me that we would move to the United States. The news caught me by surprise because during my childhood I had never left my hometown. Since I did not know what the culture and lifestyle was like in the United States, it had made me worried and scared. I was scared that I would not be able to adopt the new lifestyle that was coming for me. However, I could not change the decision that my father made. I came to the United States without any dear friends and felt lonely at first. However, I soon realized my life would change, and that I have lost something important in my life, which is friendship. It is difficult to make new friends in a new country because of the language barrier, cultural differences, and maintaining the relationship.

I find making new friends very difficult because there are many different languages spoken in the United States. The language barrier makes it really hard to communicate with people. People, who come from different countries, speak different languages, and many cannot understand each other. For example, when I took my first English class at Harold Washington College, I was in a class with many people from other countries. It was hard for me to ask them because we had a language barrier, and we were not able to understand what we were expressing to each other to the full extent. People may have the chance to make new friends, but actually they do not know each other deeply. Friends need to trust each other. Before gaining someone’s trust, you need to trust them first. 

 The second reason why I find it difficult to make friends is because of the different cultures. In my opinion, I can see that Americans have more freedom than Asians. For example, when I spoke to a friend once, she said that her parents did not really care when she comes home as long as she is safe. For me, I have to go home at a certain time because my parents feel it is unsafe for me to stay out late at night. I feel that Americans have more freedom because of the unique culture. The Asians are more conservative when it comes to family and children. I feel that my parents do not want to break the way that I was brought up, so they want to continue with the traditional culture. This is a big issue because with the different cultures I have. It will sometimes be hard for me to interact with each other.

Finally, friendship needs to be maintained or it will not last very long. Making new friends is not just about meeting them or knowing their name. It is about building long term relationships. Just knowing a person’s name does not mean they are your friends; you need to communicate more with one another. This is where spending time with your friends comes in. For instance, the more you spend time with your friends, the more you will know about them such as their characteristics, personality, and common interests. For example, I have met many great friends since I came to the United States. I treat them as good friends because we do many things together such as eating, going to the movies, studying, and talking to each other when we have problems. However, sometimes it is hard to maintain a relationship with friends because we have our own lives and long periods of work, but we always make the impossible to possible. From my personal experience, it has been hard to maintain some friendships with some of my classmates because we were busy with our own lives, and we are separated into different class. Not having the same class or spending time together has made certain relationships hard to maintain. Some of the people I used to be friends with are now just merely acquaintances.

To put it all together, I find it really difficult to make new friends in this new country. I am not familiar with the language or culture, among other things. Making friends in my hometown was definitely easier. While friendship is really important in my life, it has been really hard for me to make new friends because of the language barrier, cultural differences, and maintaining our friendship. This is something that I feel has been lost in my transition to living in the United States. I really hope the friends that I have met and have now can become my friends that I will trust and have forever.